Most of the world's nations are gathering in Brazil's northern city of Belém to negotiate the ongoing response to climate change. The United Nations annual climate summit, called COP30, begins Monday and is expected to last about two weeks.
This year, the U.S. will not play an active role in the talks. According to a White House statement to NPR, no high-level officials will attend COP30 — breaking a long-standing tradition.
During the previous Trump administration, U.S. delegates participated in the talks. Now, the administration has taken a stronger anti-climate stance, calling efforts to limit global warming a "hoax."
"President Trump will not jeopardize our country's economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries," says White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
President Trump began to de-prioritize climate in January, when he withdrew the U.S. from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. In that accord, countries agreed to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally less than 1.5 C (2.7 F). The planet is currently on track to warm roughly 2.8 C (5 F) over preindustrial levels by 2100, according to a recent U.N. climate report.
Since the Paris Agreement, the U.S. developed policies to cut climate pollution in ways that would lower future warming. But the Trump administration's sweeping rollbacks to climate policy are affecting those efforts, as well as communities' ability to cope with climate risks, like lengthening extreme heat seasons and increasingly destructive wildfires or floods. Climate experts worry that because the U.S. is setting an example, other countries might pull back on climate goals, too.
If all U.S. climate efforts were discontinued, the U.N. report estimates, the planet could warm by an extra 0.1 C — a small fraction of the total change to the planet, but a chunk that could still have significant real-life impacts.
"Each fraction of a degree matters for communities facing floods, drought, and heat extremes," says Ko Barrett, deputy secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.
Here are six major shifts in U.S. climate policy initiated by the Trump administration.
Rolling back longstanding policies to target climate pollution
In March, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to target more than two dozen rules and policies in what the agency called the "most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history."
One key component of the administration's efforts focuses on attempting to reverse the "endangerment finding," a legal basis for many of the country's climate policies.
In 2009, the EPA labeled carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses a danger to public health and welfare. But legal challenges from fossil fuel interests and their allies delayed the finalization of rules to rein in greenhouse gas pollution. Now, the Trump administration wants to eliminate that 2009 endangerment finding, which could make it easier to roll back other climate regulations.
In July, Trump's EPA argued that the country's climate pollution is not harming people and doesn't need to be regulated in the way courts and previous administrations have chosen to do it.
Reconsidering limits on climate pollution from power plants
In March, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to target more than two dozen rules and policies in what the agency called the "most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history."
One key component focuses on reversing the "endangerment finding," a legal basis for many federal climate policies such as improving vehicle mileage and cutting power plant pollution.
In 2009, the EPA labeled carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses a danger to public health and welfare. Now, the Trump administration wants to eliminate that endangerment finding, making it easier to roll back other climate regulations.
In July, Trump's EPA argued that the country's climate pollution is not harming people and doesn't need to be regulated.
Reconsidering limits on climate pollution from power plants
In June, the Trump administration announced plans to repeal limits on greenhouse gas emissions and other airborne pollutants from the nation's fossil fuel-fired power plants. If the proposal survives expected legal challenges and is finalized, it would eliminate controls on the second-largest source of climate pollution in the U.S., behind transportation.
The administration argues U.S. coal and gas-fired power plants are responsible for about 3% of global greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. It says that number is declining — it was 5.5% in 2005. So, the administration argues, reducing it further would provide little benefit to public health. That ignores that the U.S. is responsible for nearly a quarter of the climate pollution in the atmosphere today–more than any other nation, historically.
Withdrawing support for renewable energy technologies
The Trump administration is taking steps to open up more areas of U.S. land and ocean to increased oil and gas exploration. At the same time, it has been dismantling federal support for wind and solar industries, which it falsely labels as risky and unreliable.
The new GOP spending law ends federal tax incentives for wind and solar, throwing into limbo thousands of projects. The Trump administration has also canceled more than $13 billion in funds for green energy projects and tried to halt offshore wind projects already under construction. Energy experts say it's too early to know the full impact of these policies, but in the first half of 2025, U.S. renewable investment fell by 36%, according to data from BloombergNEF.
The Trump administration is also targeting subsidies for consumers to buy climate solutions like rooftop solar, efficient heat pumps, and electric vehicles. And it ended a $7 billion grant program for local solar projects. Federal incentives for rooftop solar, heat pumps, and insulation go away Dec. 31. Tax credits for electric vehicles ended Sept. 30.
Cutting climate-preparedness grants nationwide
The Trump administration has also cancelled grants for climate and environmental initiatives around the country. Grant recipients, contractors and activists say the moves have thrown into doubt the government's standing as a reliable partner.
Funding cuts have targeted a range of energy projects, as well, from transmission lines to research on capturing carbon from the atmosphere. Jackie Wong, a senior vice president at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the moves would set back American innovation and competitiveness.
Democratic lawmakers warn that cancelling Energy Department funding risks driving up utility bills and slowing economic growth at a time when new data centers and factories are expected to increase electricity demand for the first time in decades.
Slashing federal support for climate science and removing climate data
The Trump administration has systematically removed climate science and climate scientists from the federal government. One of the administration's targets was the National Climate Assessment, which is the most influential and widely-used source of information about how climate change affects the United States. In April, the Trump administration dismissed those who were working on the next edition of the report. In July, the federal website that hosted the most recent edition went dark.
The administration also slashed funding for climate science research at agencies like NOAA, NASA, and even USDA. The cuts have affected long-standing data collection efforts and datasets, like NOAA's Billion Dollar Disaster analysis, which keeps track of the ballooning costs of climate-worsened disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, hailstorms, and floods. The database was discontinued in May.
Lowering federal support for disaster relief and preparedness
As wildfires, hurricanes and storms get more intense, disasters that exceed more than a billion dollars in damage are on the rise. Many communities rely on federal support to prepare, including building flood protection projects, improving evacuation planning and fortifying hospitals and other vital infrastructure. The Trump administration has cancelled more than $4 billion in grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leaving many communities scrambling to replace that funding and prevent damage from worsening hazards. The Trump administration has said it wants states to take over disaster preparation.
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