Trump Moves To Hobble Major Us Climate Change Study

The Trump administration is canceling funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the entity that produces the federal government’s signature climate change study, according to three federal officials familiar with the move.

The move, which had been widely expected, is a potentially fatal blow to the National Climate Assessment, the study that Congress mandated under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 be issued every four years to ensure the government understands the threats that rising temperatures pose and what is driving climate changes. The report is the U.S. government’s most comprehensive look at climate change and serves as a crucial guide to state and community efforts to prepare for the effects.

The officials said NASA has canceled the contract with consulting firm ICF International, which coordinates the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the 13 federal agencies that write the National Climate Assessment.

Killing that contract has “forever severed” climate change work occurring across agencies, said one federal official heavily involved in USGCRP efforts, who was granted anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive issue to avoid retribution.

The practical effect means the National Climate Assessment will not move forward even though Congress requires a new assessment be issued by 2027, said a second official who is involved in USGCRP activities and was also granted anonymity.

ICF International did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Several USGCRP officials were being fired Wednesday, said a third official, who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The cut comes as Trump’s EPA has launched an effort to reconsider the climate endangerment finding, the agency's determination affirming the scientific finding that greenhouse gases harm human health, and which serves as the basis of all U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.

Trump administration officials have had the USGCRP and National Climate Assessment in the crosshairs for years, contending that its findings constrain the administration’s efforts to slash environmental regulations. President Donald Trump has also called climate change a hoax despite the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of global warming.

White House Office and Management and Budget Director Ross Vought supported scrapping it altogether or stacking it with voices more friendly to industry in Project 2025, the blueprint he helped produce at the conservative Heritage Foundation that served as a guide for the Trump presidency written by many current and former Trump officials.