WP: Trump administration dismisses scientists behind key climate report

In a move that has raised concerns among climate experts, the Trump administration informed the scientists writing the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment (NCA) that they were being “released” from their roles.

This message, delivered via email on April 28 and obtained by The Washington Post, also indicated that the scope of the report was being reevaluated. As a result, work on the NCA will pause, with the next report, originally slated for release by 2028, potentially delayed or altered in a way that could downplay climate change, or possibly not be produced at all, according to experts in the field.

The NCA, which has been published every four to five years since 2000, is a crucial document that provides an analysis of climate change in the United States, projecting environmental changes and outlining localised impacts across the country. The report serves a wide range of stakeholders, including the U.S. military, emergency responders, farmers, private companies, and government agencies.

Chris Field, a professor of environmental studies at Stanford University, emphasised the importance of the report, comparing its absence to “driving a car with a dirty windshield.” He warned that without the NCA, it would be difficult to detect environmental risks before they manifest as full-blown disasters.

The email from the Trump administration, however, did not clarify what would happen to the upcoming NCA report, only stating that there might be “future opportunities to contribute or engage” for the affected scientists and experts. This uncertainty has left many in the scientific community concerned about the future of the report.

The decision follows a series of budget cuts under the Trump administration, including significant reductions in funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which coordinates the creation of the NCA. The administration also cancelled a contract with a key provider of staff for the program, a move that experts have said could prevent the report from being completed. Mijin Cha, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the scientists dismissed, stated that the NCA’s multi-year process requires rigorous research, and without the necessary staff and volunteers, the work simply could not continue.

The National Climate Assessment is essential for understanding the long-term implications of climate change in the U.S., and Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist who worked under both the Obama and Biden administrations, expressed concern that the Trump administration may attempt to release its own report. Lubchenco warned that any such report, lacking the credibility of expert authors and peer reviews from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, would be “seen as a joke.”

During his first term, Trump’s administration drew suspicion for its handling of the 2018 NCA, which was released on the day after Thanksgiving, potentially minimizing its media attention. The NCA issued in 2023 under the Biden administration, however, sounded alarms about the increasingly deadly consequences of climate change, despite a reduction in U.S. emissions since their peak in 2007.

Stanford’s Chris Field argued that continuing with the assessment would be the “smart, cost-effective thing to do,” urging the administration to proceed with the important work of documenting and addressing climate change risks.

By Tamilla Hasanova