A new paper highlights topics where scientists can fill the void left by the White House's terminated US climate report. The roadmap includes basics like comparing measured trends to climate model projections.

It also calls out recent developments: machine-learning-based climate simulations and finer spatial resolution techniques. On the human side, US climate policy is a chaotic moving target, but local adaptation and emissions reduction efforts are playing out. Renewable energy is getting cheaper, while the AI data center rush has reshaped US electricity demand expectations.

The paper suggests assessments could mirror past National Climate Assessments' regional focus. Using Alaska as an example, it notes research connecting permafrost thaw and wildfires to heavy metals like mercury released into surface waters. Working outside a federally coordinated assessment allows analyses to cross borders, expanding into Canada or evaluating trade links to climate impacts elsewhere.

"I see this roadmap as seeding and accelerating a distributed synthesis effort rather than launching a centrally managed research program," lead author Melisa Kenney told Ars. "The goal is for papers to synthesize our current scientific understanding of key topics to support a network of climate assessment efforts occurring at state, local, sectoral, or other scales." Groups can then lean on the US Climate Collection in the absence of a high-quality US National Climate Assessment.