The Fifth National Climate Assessment: Implications for Agriculture
The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) was released on November 14, 2023. Assembled by teams of researchers from a range of climate change specialties, the publication represents a synthesis of current research including an evaluation of the current and future implications of climate change for life in the United States. As those paying attention to agriculture know, climate impacts have become increasingly apparent since the last assessment was published in 2018.
As with recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the NCA5 presents a grim overall outlook with substantial climate shifts observed and predicted around the country. However, the publication also presents planned solutions to reduce emissions and transform toward increasingly robust farming systems.
The NCA5 covers a lot of ground, but this summary focuses …
