Trump administration seeks to reframe climate change as beneficial

President Donald Trump’s administration is working to produce a federal report that portrays climate change as beneficial, a move that could help justify rolling back environmental regulations and expanding executive authority.

Scott Waldman reports for E&E News.

In short:

• The administration is exploring ways to undermine climate science, including rewriting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding, which mandates regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Officials may selectively use research to craft a National Climate Assessment that aligns with industry interests and downplays climate risks.
• Legal experts say overturning established climate science would be difficult, but a politically motivated report could still influence policy and court rulings.

Key quote:

“What the Trump administration is trying to do amounts to nothing more than trying to pollute the process with ideologically-motivated antiscience. It means that the U.S. federal government is now at war with humanity.”

— Michael Mann, director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania

Why this matters:

Efforts to rewrite climate science could weaken environmental protections and delay action on climate change, despite overwhelming evidence of its dangers. A politically-driven report could influence regulations, legal battles, and public understanding of global warming’s risks. Such a shift could influence regulations, legal proceedings, and public understanding of climate change risks, even as scientific consensus remains clear: Human-driven climate change is already exacerbating extreme weather, endangering ecosystems, and threatening public health. If the administration succeeds in reframing the report’s findings, it may erode trust in scientific institutions while reinforcing industries that contribute heavily to greenhouse gas emissions.

This effort is not without precedent. Past administrations have attempted to alter climate assessments, with mixed success. But at a time when global climate policies are under scrutiny and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, any dilution of climate science in official government reports could have far-reaching implications — both for U.S. policy and for the world’s broader response to the climate crisis.

Learn more: Trump's advisers push to reshape U.S. climate report