The withdrawal of a significant American scientist from an international climate change event this week has cast a political cloud over the talks in China.
Dr Kate Calvin, Nasa’s chief scientist and senior climate adviser, was scheduled to co-chair the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) discussion. However, CNN reported that she will no longer be attending the talks in Hangzhou as part of a 'stop work order' issued to scientists in the US working on the report.
In a statement to The National, a Nasa spokesperson confirmed "Dr Calvin will not be traveling to this meeting."
Established in 1988, the IPCC is the UN's body for assessing the science related to climate change. Its reports are designed to help political leaders and policymakers make decisions about mitigation strategies. The meeting taking place this week is set set to involve timelines and budgets for the next synthesis report due in 2029.
At the opening of the meeting in China, Inger Anderson, executive director of the UN's environment programme, emphasised the urgency of action needed to tackle global warming.
“Science is physics, not politics. Science cannot be politicised because science will always remain science,” she said. “The IPCC has the clout to take this message to the world and show us what must be done, starting with the decisions taken at this session.”
What impact has Trump's presidency had?
Dr Calvin's withdrawal from this week's discussions is the latest in a series of setbacks for the climate change community following US President Donald Trump's decision last month to pull his country out of the Paris Agreement on his first day in office. He made the same decision during his first four-year presidency in 2016.
The Paris Agreement, also known as the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change signed in 2015. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance. It is aimed at limiting long-term global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The agreement is voluntary and allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Trump argues that these agreements “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people”.
Recent decision by the new Trump administration have created confusion and frustration within the climate science community. “Trump has already attacked multilateral climate forums, kick-starting the process of pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement and blocking financial contributions to the UN’s climate body and the Green Climate Fund,” Prof Horton, director of Singapore's Earth Observatory, told The National.
Climate and sustainability expert Wai-Shin Chan added that Washington's actions could “embolden other countries to consider the same path”. Mr Chan, former managing director and head of the climate change centre of excellence at HSBC, emphasised that a domino effect could “weaken the global vision to keep temperature rises in check and would slow the pace of transition to a lower carbon economy”.
Job cuts in environmental sector
Thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs in the first month of President Trump's second term. While there is no official figure on the total number of layoffs, sectors such as education, defence and those in the climate space are all feeling the heat.
Shortly after removing the US from the Paris Agreement, President Trump signed another executive order to “evaluate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). This is the country's main disaster relief agency, employing more than 20,000 people nationwide.
The agency on Friday was issued with an immediate stop-to-work order connected to climate change and the elimination of climate-related terms across the agency. Experts say dismantling or downsizing the agency could leave the US open to the effects of climate change, which is exacerbating the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
Fema is not alone, either. Staff from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) have reportedly been on the ground at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), which falls under the US Department of Commerce. Staff members at the agency, which provides daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring, are expecting “mass firings”, according to The Hill.
Dr Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he can think of “nothing worse” than turning this “scientific powerhouse into a skeletal operation”. “If President Trump moves forward with demolishing Noaa, he will jeopardise most people’s access to life-saving information, while only the rich might be able to afford private data sources,” he said.
Meanwhile there have been reports of about 400 terminations at the Environmental Protection Agency, and team members at the National Science Foundation (NSF) say about 10 per cent of staff were let go last week.
In a public post on LinkedIn, Raleigh Martin, a programme director at NSF, shared that his division had lost about 20 per cent of its staff. “The firing was completely arbitrary, with no actual plan to achieve efficiency, but instead picking off anyone with the fewest job protections,” he wrote.
“Science is the goose that lays golden eggs,” Mr Martin added, noting that “right now the science goose is being strangled” and that “our society will be poorer, sicker, and weaker as a result”.
From job cuts, to bringing back plastic straws, halting climate grants, to shifts in energy standards, the list of climate backtracking under the new Trump administration is extensive.
Individuals and agencies drive progress
The shifts in political policy on climate are not deterring nature groups in the US, though. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global environmental organisation headquartered in Virginia, highlighted that the first US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement led to stronger commitments from the country when it re-entered the agreement under Joe Biden in 2020, as well as the creation of federal policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which created hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy and construction.
“More than 1,000 scientists at TNC are leading the way to conserving the lands and waters that all life depends on. So, when scientists tell us that limiting the global temperature from rising more than 2°C will help protect the diversity of life on earth, we listen and we act,” Jennifer Morris, TNC chief executive, said. The TNC has called on organisations, businesses, states, tribes and local governments in the US to stay committed to climate goals.
Prof Horton went one step further, arguing that the climate challenge, rather than being a burden on the American taxpayer as President Trump claims, actually presents an economic opportunity. “By tackling this problem now, we can grow our economy and transform our nation into a clean energy superpower,” he said. “The US can choose to continue to lead it or be left behind.”
