Staff involved in producing the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA 5) during the Biden administration were instructed to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) considerations when assembling research teams, according to internal documents obtained by government watchdog group Democracy Restored.
The documents, reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), show that NCA 5 staff received materials on Nov. 7, 2023, directing them that they were “required to build diverse teams” by considering a wide range of disciplines, including “Indigenous Knowledge” and “science communication.” The guidance also instructed staff to consider physical characteristics such as “race, ethnicity, [and] gender,” along with “diverse lived experiences and perspectives,” when selecting contributors.
The materials emphasized that “social science is science,” framing the inclusion of social and equity-focused perspectives as an integral component of the assessment process.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released on Nov. 14, 2023, evaluated the impacts of climate change in the United States. The report was produced under the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which has coordinated national climate assessments since 2000.
According to DCNF, the USGCRP website went offline in early 2025 as the Trump administration reportedly moved to shutter the office. The internal “Hard Q&A” document obtained by Democracy Restored offers insight into how the agency addressed internal and external criticism in the lead-up to the report’s release.
Democracy Restored Director Houston Keene criticized the approach outlined in the documents, arguing that it undermined scientific rigor and politicized the assessment process. He said the revelations raised further concerns about the credibility of the NCA and called for the report to be discarded entirely.
The documents themselves stated that all materials were embargoed until the public release of NCA 5 and were intended for internal agency use in an advisory capacity.
Democracy Restored has previously reported that ICF, a consulting firm, played a significant role in drafting the Fourth National Climate Assessment, citing a former government official speaking on background. The watchdog group has claimed that ICF’s framing of climate data contributed to what it described as an “alarmist narrative.”
The internal “Hard Q&A” fact sheet addressed questions related to alarmism, including whether NCA 5 was “another doom and gloom report.” The document stated that the assessment did not “sugarcoat” the seriousness of climate change or the potential consequences of inaction in the United States, while also asserting that elements of the report were intended to provide readers with “courage.”
The notice cited recent legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, as factors expected to increase the deployment of low- and zero-carbon technologies. It argued that future warming would depend on policy choices made today.
Other questions in the document addressed criticism of the report’s focus on “equity and justice,” including whether such topics undermined its scientific basis and why chapters discussed issues such as colonialism, slavery, and racism. The responses argued that understanding social systems is essential to climate science and policymaking, and that the assessment identified higher climate risks for certain communities due to cumulative social and economic inequities.
In a statement, Democracy Restored argued that the authors of NCA 5 placed what it described as a discriminatory ideology at the center of a taxpayer-funded policy report, disputing the assertion that social science belongs in what it called the nation’s crown jewel of climate research.
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