Trump White House snubs UN climate talks and prepares to scuttle EPA regulatory tool
By
Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.
|
March 5th, 2025
The Trump administration has made another in-your-face move away from global greenhouse gas-reduction commitments by barring U.S. officials from traveling to China to participate in an international conference to draft the next UN climate assessment. Trump is also on the verge of jettisoning an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy that served as the backbone of U.S. climate regulations.
Upon receiving the news that the trip to Hangzhou, China for a Feb. 24 to 28 meeting of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was a no go, Katherine Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist and senior climate adviser was likely disappointed. Lest anyone miss the message, NASA also terminated its contract with a U.S.-based group of scientists and staff who were working closely with Calvin on the IPCC’s next climate assessment, due to be released in 2029, the Washington Post reported.
The IPCC has issued six climate assessments since the U.N. body’s creation in 1988. The release of each of these, accompanied by great fanfare, has triggered warnings of dire consequences unless global emissions of greenhouse gases are not substantially reduced. With the absence of American participation in drafting the next report, calls for climate-related sacrifices by governments of other major emitters of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases risk encountering political resistance. After all, if the U.S. isn’t playing, is there really a game?
https://www.cfact.org/2025/03/05/trump-white-house-snubs-un-climate-talks-and-prepares-to-scuttle-epa-regulatory-tool/
