National Summit Overview

• Summit Program, including Agenda [PDF]
• Biographies of Participants [PDF]

Conference Announcement

In spite of uncertainties about the specific magnitude, timing, and spatial distributions of change, past and present trends in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have committed the Earth to a trajectory of climatic change to which humanity will need to adapt. The National Summit on Coping with Climate Change will bring leading scientists and scholars together with key decision makers in a structured discussion that will address the options available to institutions, firms, and societies in the U.S. for adapting and responding to climate change.

Adaptation requires understanding both (a) the nature of specific disruptions that might be expected with changes in the mean, extremes, and uncertainties in climatic conditions and (b) the nature of how specific societal systems are structured, how they can be made more resilient in the face of large changes in context, and how interacting systems and their dependencies affect each other.

First, the summit will focus on four specific sectors that represent illustrative examples of the social, economic, environmental, and natural resource issues that need to be addressed. The areas we have chosen to focus on are Public Health, the Energy Industry, Water Quality, and Fisheries. The summit will then turn its attention to general models for how different kinds of organizations, within these sectors and more generally, can put into place structures or processes that help them to anticipate and adapt to near and long-term change.

The university community and the public are invited to attend plenary sessions on the first and the third day, May 8 and 10. Wednesday, May 9, will be a private working session for experts from around the country who have been invited to participate.