After the Trump administration dismissed key scientists involved in the National Climate Assessment last year, a group of those researchers has continued their work independently, publishing their first collaborative paper as part of a new initiative known as the U.S. Climate Collection. This effort aims to sustain the type of climate research that traditionally supported the federally mandated National Climate Assessment.
The paper, released recently, involved contributions from 175 scientists and marks a concerted attempt to provide a platform for climate synthesis research outside of government channels. Costa Samaras, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a lead author on the paper, described the initiative as essential for advancing climate science regardless of political climate. Samaras was among those removed from the official assessment team in 2025.
“Communities are still at risk of climate impacts, whether or not the government aligns with what those risks are,” Samaras said. Melissa Kenney, director of research and knowledge initiatives at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment and also a lead author, noted that the paper assesses progress in climate science since the last National Climate Assessment, completed in 2023, and identifies areas requiring further evaluation.
The National Climate Assessment, which synthesizes large volumes of climate research every four years, is overseen by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. In 2026, the Trump administration appointed Matthew Wielicki, a known skeptic of mainstream climate science and former University of Alabama geochemist, to lead this program. The Biden administration’s White House Office of Science and Technology Policy declined to comment on the U.S. Climate Collection or the ongoing work on the Sixth National Climate Assessment due in 2027.
The new paper highlights research gaps such as the need to better understand compound extreme events—including heatwaves, wildfires, and electricity brownouts—and the emerging climate impacts from increased electricity usage by artificial intelligence systems and data centers. It also stresses the importance of refining regional and local climate models and advancing attribution science, which assesses how much climate change contributes to specific extreme events.
Traditionally, the National Climate Assessment has involved distilling thousands of scientific studies to provide policymakers and the public with comprehensive insights on climate trends and risks—a complex and resource-intensive task typically supported by federal funding. Synthesis research has limited venues for peer-reviewed publishing, leaving displaced scientists without clear outlets after their removal from the official assessment process.
“This is an example of where the American Geophysical Union and other professional societies are stepping in to meet this current moment and fill gaps,” said Brandon Jones, president of the American Geophysical Union.
Although the U.S. Climate Collection is not intended to replace the National Climate Assessment, its organizers aim to continue providing a scientific foundation for climate evaluations that can inform decisions at local, state, national, and international levels, including future reports by government agencies and organizations such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.