In a statement on Thursday, Dr Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and one of the authors of the sixth NCA report due in 2028 that the administration dismissed earlier this year, said she was dismayed by Wright’s comments.
“Secretary Wright just confirmed our worst fears – that this administration plans to not just bury the scientific evidence but replace it with outright lies to downplay the worsening climate crisis and evade responsibility for addressing it.
“The process for developing the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment reports is rigorous, with federal agencies and hundreds of scientists constructing this solid scientific foundation that decision makers, businesses and the public rely on to stay safe in a world made more perilous each day by climate change.
“People across the country are already reeling from climate-fueled worsening heatwaves, floods, wildfires and storms. Lying about that reality doesn’t change it; it just leaves people in harm’s way. We urge Congress to intervene to safeguard the integrity of the NCA reports so they remain vital, lifesaving tools in the fight against climate change.”
The NCA reports are published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and a Department of Energy spokesperson told CNN that Wright was “not suggesting he personally would be altering past reports”.
In May, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union said they would join forces to produce peer-reviewed research on the climate crisis’s impact after the NCA contributors for the 2028 publication were dismissed.
The energy department’s climate report last week was published on the same day the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to undo the 2009 “endangerment finding”, which allows the agency to limit planet-heating pollution from cars and trucks, power plants and other industrial sources.
This raised concerns that the Trump administration was attempting to scrap almost all pollution regulations in steps likely to trigger battles in the courts in the coming years.
