Unlocking the benefits of transparent and reusable science for climate risk management

People around the world seek climate risk information to guide their decisions. For instance, projections about future flood risk inform where households choose to live, how lenders manage credit risks, and which communities receive federal funding. Yet data limitations and fundamental validation challenges raise important concerns about the reliability of such projections. The principles of transparency and reusability help address these concerns by enabling scrutiny of assumptions and methods, development of foundational data and tools, and consistent application of evaluation standards. While there is ongoing debate about how much transparency commercial climate risk services should provide, many expect noncommercial actors to lead the way on operationalizing transparency and reusability to fulfill their knowledge-building role in the climate risk ecosystem. However, despite prominent success stories, we find a substantial gap between principles and practice: Only four percent of the most-cited peer-reviewed climate risk studies in recent years fully share their data and code although this is a widely accepted minimum standard for transparency. We highlight low-cost measures that noncommercial researchers can take now to improve transparency and reusability. We also emphasize that transformative progress requires substantial investment, cross-sector collaboration, and careful consideration of tradeoffs, data rights, and multiple perspectives on equity. We hope this perspective accelerates both immediate actions and longer-term conversations to improve the ability of science to effectively support timely, evidence-based, and sound climate risk management.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2026-01-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422157123
Primary Topic
Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Unlocking the benefits of transparent and reusable science for climate risk management

Justin Mankin, Chris Vernon, James Doss‐Gollin, Casey Burleyson et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
article

Unlocking the benefits of transparent and reusable science for climate risk management

Justin Mankin, Chris Vernon, James Doss‐Gollin, Casey Burleyson, Jennie Rice, Adam Pollack, Matteo Coronese, Courtney Cooper, Sönke Dangendorf, Jan Kwakkel, Robert E. Kopp, Corey Lesk, Casey Helgeson, Madison Condon, Robert E. Nicholas, Mengqi Zhao, J. Campbell, Moira Scheeler, Prabhat Hegde, Lisa Auermuller, Vivek Srikrishnan, Samantha Roth, Klaus Keller
article en

Abstract

People around the world seek climate risk information to guide their decisions. For instance, projections about future flood risk inform where households choose to live, how lenders manage credit risks, and which communities receive federal funding. Yet data limitations and fundamental validation challenges raise important concerns about the reliability of such projections. The principles of transparency and reusability help address these concerns by enabling scrutiny of assumptions and methods, development of foundational data and tools, and consistent application of evaluation standards. While there is ongoing debate about how much transparency commercial climate risk services should provide, many expect noncommercial actors to lead the way on operationalizing transparency and reusability to fulfill their knowledge-building role in the climate risk ecosystem. However, despite prominent success stories, we find a substantial gap between principles and practice: Only four percent of the most-cited peer-reviewed climate risk studies in recent years fully share their data and code although this is a widely accepted minimum standard for transparency. We highlight low-cost measures that noncommercial researchers can take now to improve transparency and reusability. We also emphasize that transformative progress requires substantial investment, cross-sector collaboration, and careful consideration of tradeoffs, data rights, and multiple perspectives on equity. We hope this perspective accelerates both immediate actions and longer-term conversations to improve the ability of science to effectively support timely, evidence-based, and sound climate risk management.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 123(3)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US), Berry College (US), Dartmouth College (US), Boston University (US), University of Iowa (US), Pennsylvania State University (US), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (US), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (IT), Cornell University (US), Kennedy Center (DK), Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (NL), Rütgers (Germany) (DE), Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UG), National Institute of Meteorology (TN), NOAA Office for Coastal Management (US), Dartmouth Hospital (GB), Rice University (US), Columbia University (US), Delft University of Technology (NL)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 92%
Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.