President Donald Trump and his administration are systematically dismantling federal climate action in the United States.
Trump’s agenda goes beyond championing fossil fuels – his administration is aggressively targeting clean energy.
In 2024, the US saw record-breaking growth in renewable energy, supported by falling costs and supportive policy under the previous administration. But Trump has halted all funding related to Biden-era climate and infrastructure initiatives, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
One of his first acts in office targeted wind energy, delivering on his campaign promise to kill the development of his country’s largest source of renewable power “on day one”. He ordered a freeze on new approvals and renewals of wind energy projects on federal land and waters. The president has been making false and misleading claims on wind energy for nearly a decade.
Other clean energy programmes are also at risk. The IRA’s $7 billion “Solar for All”, designed to finance small-scale community and rooftop solar power projects in low-income neighbourhoods and communities faces an uncertain future, and funding for rural electric co-operatives designed to support a shift away from coal has been put on hold.
Electric vehicles have also come under attack. The administration revoked Biden’s goal for EVs to make up half of new car sales by 2030 and froze the $5 billion initiative aimed at building a national network of high-powered charging stations. Federal offices have been directed to rip out EV chargers and sell off newly bought EV fleets. Tax credits to lower EV purchase costs are also in doubt.
Public transport is another casualty. A $4 billion federal investment in a high-speed rail line in California is now under review, echoing his first term, where President Trump withdrew a promised $1 billion in federal funding for the project before it was later reinstated by the Biden administration.
The federal government has withdrawn its support for New York City’s congestion pricing, which is intended to fund public transport and address traffic and pollution in the city.
Trump’s attack on domestic clean energy is only one part of his broader strategy to “unleash American energy”, prioritising fossil fuels over climate action. His administration is supporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) export infrastructure domestically and seeking new markets, including in India and Japan whose governments are aiming to avoid punishing tariffs. Closer to home, the European Union is considering increasing US LNG imports to diffuse the possibility of a trade war, and speculation is growing that the Irish government will change its policy in relation to LNG to support imported US fracked gas, to build closer ties with the Trump administration.
Dismantling climate action has gone far deeper than promoting support for fossil fuels, and withdrawing support for clean energy, and the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is only the beginning.
The new administration is waging an all-out war on the scientific foundations of climate science and research. The US Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly advised the Trump administration to remove a scientific finding under the Clean Air Act – the legal basis for US action on climate change -which states that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
Meanwhile, Trump indicated a potential 65 per cent cut in funding for the agency whose core mission is protecting clean air, land and water. Other key scientific agencies, including the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are also bracing for budget cuts and lay-offs.
Alarmingly, the US government is withdrawing funding and supports for research that even references climate change, including other socially progressive research topics considered “woke” by the new administration. References to climate change, and crucial data sets have been purged from official websites, leading researchers to scramble to archive crucial records before they disappear.
On the global stage, the Trump administration has taken further steps to weaken climate science. It has banned US scientists from participating in the next international scientific assessment, undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which forms the scientific basis for international climate agreements. Moreover, Nasa has cancelled the funding for a team that provides essential technical support to this crucial assessment effort, and no US diplomat joined the latest IPCC meeting.
Senior climate scientist Valérie Masson-Delmotte characterised this targeting of climate science and scientists as “obscurantism” echoing the censorship of free speech during McCarthyism. She described it as “a smoke screen between scientific knowledge and the general public, and the deliberate spread of misinformation ... and unprecedented attacks on academic freedom – when scientists are forbidden to speak out, interact with colleagues abroad, or freely publish scientific work”.
The implications of these policies are alarming. The United States bears the greatest historical responsibility for climate change. As the world’s largest economy and leading fossil fuel exporter, its role in shaping global climate action is critical.
While individual states and cities may continue to push for progress, Trump’s administration has shattered any hope for national leadership on climate in the coming years. The repercussions will be felt worldwide.
Hannah Daly is professor of sustainable energy at UCC
