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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 19, 2001

United States and Italy Pledge Joint Research on Climate Change

Recognizing the need to draw on sound science and the power of technology to reduce the uncertainty associated with future global climate and environmental change, the United States and Italy have agreed to undertake joint research in several critical areas, including:

• Atmospheric Studies Related to Climate;
• Low Carbon Technologies;
• Global and Regional Climate Modeling; and
• Carbon Cycle Research.

Some of the most critically necessary research on climate change lies in the atmospheric sciences. Together, our scientific communities hope to make advances in a number of areas, such as: global circulation models, moving towards a "planet simulator'; remote sensing applications; small scale processes and parameterizations; downscaling procedures from global to regional models; developing models that integrate chemistry and small scale circulation; and in our understanding of the interactions between radiation and the atmosphere. These studies have great potential to enhance our understanding of future climate change by giving us a more accurate representation of physical, chemical, and biological processes in climate models.

Global and regional scale climate modeling increases our understanding of, and our ability to assess, changes in climate variability and their impact on the environment.

Carbon Cycle Research can reduce the uncertainties in the natural sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the size of the terrestrial and oceanic carbon storage reservoirs.

Our experts will be meeting soon to outline the next steps of this joint initiative.