Research note:ACC does not rely on NASA material in this Education Center. U.S. federal-agency pages are secondary references rather than the primary foundation of the library.
Reference library
Sources organized by learning path.
Use this page to open the underlying material directly. References are reviewed periodically as reports, technologies, and institutional pages change.
01
Climate Science Foundations
Understand the core concepts before moving into impacts and solutions.
Open the guide →Open the greenhouse-effect guide →- IPCC AR6 Working Group I: The Physical Science BasisCore scientific assessment of the climate system and climate change.
- IPCC AR6 Synthesis ReportIntegrated overview of climate science, risks, adaptation, and mitigation.
- WMO Climate Topic PageInternational climate overview and links to monitoring resources.
- IPCC AR6 Working Group I, Chapter 7Earth's energy budget, radiative forcing, greenhouse gases, climate feedbacks, and sensitivity.
- WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin No. 21Global 2024 concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
- NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas IndexObservation-based change in effective radiative forcing from long-lived greenhouse gases.
- The Nature Conservancy: Natural Climate SolutionsApplied perspective on protecting, managing, and restoring nature alongside emissions reduction.
02
What Is Changing Now?
Review major indicators, observed changes, and the difference between evidence and exaggeration.
Open the guide →- WMO: State of the Global Climate 2025Current international summary of major climate indicators and impacts.
- UNEP: Emissions Gap Report 2025Annual assessment of the gap between climate commitments and emissions pathways.
- IPCC AR6 Synthesis ReportIntegrated assessment of observed changes, risks, and response options.
- Union of Concerned Scientists: ClimateApplied educational resource on climate science and policy.
03
Renewable Energy and the Grid
Learn how solar, wind, storage, transmission, and grid flexibility work together.
Open the guide →- IRENA: Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026Official capacity statistics for renewable power technologies.
- IEA: Electricity 2026 - GridsCurrent analysis of grid queues, investment, congestion, and flexibility.
- IEA: Grid-scale StorageOverview of storage services in modern power systems.
- Union of Concerned Scientists: EnergyApplied resource on electricity systems and clean energy.
- Earthjustice: Clean EnergyApplied legal and policy resource on clean-energy transition.
04
Buildings and Transportation
Connect energy use to homes, businesses, cities, vehicles, and harder-to-electrify sectors.
Open the guide →- IPCC AR6 WGIII Chapter 9: BuildingsAssessment of emissions and mitigation options in buildings.
- IPCC AR6 WGIII Chapter 10: TransportAssessment of transport systems, fuels, vehicles, and enabling conditions.
- IEA: TransportCurrent international energy analysis of transport pathways.
- NRDC: BuildingsApplied resource on efficient, healthier, lower-emission buildings.
05
Biodiesel and Alternative Fuels
Examine feedstocks, blends, lifecycle analysis, realistic uses, and important tradeoffs.
Open the guide →- IEA: Delivering Sustainable Fuels2025 analysis of biofuels, biogases, low-emissions hydrogen, and hydrogen-based fuels.
- IEA: Carbon Accounting for Sustainable BiofuelsAnalysis of transparent lifecycle accounting for biofuels.
- IEA: BioenergySustainability principles for bioenergy deployment.
- Xu et al. (2022): Lifecycle GHG Emissions of Biodiesel and Renewable DieselPeer-reviewed lifecycle analysis of biodiesel and renewable-diesel production pathways.
- IEA Bioenergy: Lessons Learned for Biofuels DeploymentInternational review of advanced and conventional biofuel deployment.
- Alternative Fuels Data Center: Biodiesel BasicsSupplemental U.S. federal technical reference for biodiesel terminology and common blends.
- Hemp The ClimateApplied advocacy resource for emerging hemp-related ideas; use alongside independent research.
06
Forests, Agriculture, Water, and Ecosystems
Understand how natural systems support climate resilience and why tradeoffs matter.
Open the guide →- IPCC AR6 WGII Chapter 2: Terrestrial and Freshwater EcosystemsAssessment of observed impacts, projected risks, and adaptation options.
- IPCC AR6 WGII Chapter 4: WaterAssessment of water-cycle changes, impacts, and adaptation.
- The Nature Conservancy: Natural Climate SolutionsApplied perspective on nature-based mitigation approaches.
- Rainforest Alliance: ClimateApplied resource on farms, forests, livelihoods, and resilience.
- Cool EarthApplied resource on rainforest communities and forest protection.
- WWF: GangesApplied freshwater conservation resource.
07
Resilience, Justice, and Community Action
Explore adaptation, risk, preparedness, fairness, and community-led solutions.
Open the guide →- IPCC AR6 Working Group IIAssessment of impacts, adaptation, vulnerability, ecosystems, and communities.
- UNEP: Adaptation Gap Report 2025Current assessment of adaptation planning, implementation, and finance.
- C2ES: Climate ResilienceApplied resource on climate-risk planning.
- The Solutions Project: What We DoApplied resource on frontline-community climate solutions.
- Earthjustice: Clean EnergyApplied legal and policy resource.
08
Taking Informed Action
Turn information into realistic personal, community, business, and charitable decisions.
Open the guide →- UNEP: Emissions Gap Report 2025Context for the scale of the mitigation challenge.
- UNEP: Adaptation Gap Report 2025Context for resilience and implementation needs.
- 350.org: AboutApplied movement resource on fossil fuels and a just clean-energy transition.
- NRDC: BuildingsApplied resource on building efficiency and healthier buildings.
- Union of Concerned Scientists: EnergyApplied resource on energy systems and clean-energy choices.
- Elemental Impact: Data Center Innovation InitiativeElemental’s published data-center technology priorities, including cooling and water efficiency. Program description reviewed October 15, 2026; not evidence of completed energy or water savings.
- Ceres: research and resourcesPublishes guidance on sustainable data centers, covering energy, water, grid strain, and community impacts beyond AI alone. Its work covers data centers broadly. Listing Ceres here does not select it as our 1% recipient. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Green Web Foundation: research and resourcesBuilds tools for fossil-free web hosting and digital carbon accounting across the internet, not AI specifically. Its wider digital mission is not an AI-specific cooling or water-efficiency program. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Data & Society: research and resourcesExamines climate technology and justice, studying how tech infrastructure affects environments and communities. Research can inform community decisions; this is not a facility retrofit program. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Epoch AI: research and resourcesTracks data on AI compute growth and data center capacity, offering resource estimates and methodology. Power-capacity estimates are not metered electricity or water use, and research does not itself establish reductions. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- AlgorithmWatch: research and resourcesProduced the SustAIn project, publishing AI sustainability assessments and policy recommendations. The original SustAIn project ended in 2024; its published resources remain available for reference. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Green Software Foundation: standards and engineeringDevelops the Software Carbon Intensity for AI and other green-software standards and methodologies. Standards guide measurement; applying them does not by itself demonstrate lower resource use. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- MLCommons: standards and engineeringRuns MLPerf Power, benchmarking energy use of AI systems under standardized testing conditions. System benchmarks do not measure whole-facility impacts or establish cooling-water savings. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- AI Energy Score: standards and engineeringA separate collaborative project rating inference energy use of AI models under controlled tasks and hardware. Inference GPU energy is not the same as total facility energy, training impacts or water use. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Open Compute Project: standards and engineeringPublishes open data center facility designs covering power, cooling, and water engineering approaches. Engineering resources do not establish verified savings from a particular project or donation. Reviewed October 15, 2026.
- ACC Trusted Charities and AI resource directoryACC directory of organizations and resources.
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