The National Climate Assessment is required by law to be published every four years.
The Trump administration abruptly announced this week that it is dismissing all contributors and coauthors for the National Climate Assessment, an examination of the global climate crisis and its effects on several aspects of society that is required by law to be published by 2028.
By dismissing those contributors (nearly 400 in total), the administration has put into doubt whether the assessment will be published on time, or, if it is printed, whether its contents can be viewed as trustworthy.
Creating the report is a years-long endeavor. Scientists and other experts in climate sciences volunteer to compile information for the assessment, after which 14 federal agencies review their findings and a public comment period takes place. The entire process is overseen by the Global Change Research Program, a federal initiative that was established in 1990.
The upcoming report, which is mandated by Congress to be completed every four years, is slated to be the sixth National Climate Assessment.
The report is used by local, state and federal governments to assess and determine policies relating to the climate crisis. It’s also used by private companies and nonprofit groups to inform their decision making.
The White House emailed the report’s contributors on Monday, telling them the assessment “is currently being re-evaluated.”
“We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles,” the message continued. “As plans develop for the assessment, there may be future opportunities to contribute or engage. Thank you for your service.”
The dismissal of contributors to the report comes just weeks after the Trump White House fired dozens of employees at the Global Change Research Program. That action also sparked concern about the assessment’s future. Days later, the administration announced that it was putting a “halt” on the assessment, though it hadn’t announced at that point that its current list of contributors would be removed.
Critics, including current and former contributors to the National Climate Assessment, decried the decision to “release” those who were slated to deliver the impending report.
“This is as close as it gets to a termination of the assessment. If you get rid of all the people involved, nothing’s moving forward,” said Jesse Keenan, a coauthor of the last assessment and a climate studies professor at Tulane University, speaking to The New York Times about the matter.
Rachel Cleetus, the Senior Policy Director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who was slated to be a coauthor on the report, said that the Trump administration was “trying to bury this report,” but that doing so wouldn’t “alter the scientific facts one bit.”
“Without this information our country risks flying blind into a world made more dangerous by human-caused climate change,” Cleetus said, noting that, “the only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits at the expense of people’s health and the nation’s economic well-being.”
Cleetus further called on Congress to “step up to ensure the report it requires by law is conducted with scientific integrity and delivered in a timely way.”
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