Climate assessments have long been key scientific inputs that inform the development of productive and impactful climate policy in the United States and around the world. This introduction sets the stage for the suite of papers in the Topical Collection “Advancements in U.S. Climate Assessments.” Inspired and informed by the release of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, the papers within this issue document lessons learned...

“Nature” is a broad term with neither a standard definition nor consistent use, even across federal reports like the National Climate Assessment (NCA). The process of defining complex topics like “nature” is difficult given the broad range in people’s understandings of and relationships with the natural world. To support the development of future nature assessments and NCAs, we analyzed use of nature-related words and themes o...

Scientific assessments are tools used to look across a broad body of knowledge and draw overarching conclusions about the state of the science. They allow experts to synthesize technical knowledge and develop broad understanding of observed and future trends, risks, and opportunities. The National Climate Assessment (NCA), a major climate report of the United States (U.S.) Government, is one such assessment report. The NCA was...