Why Trump's new climate report has scientists worried

RICHMOND, Virginia - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a major report, crafted by a handful of scientific experts, that challenges widely accepted conclusions on the climate crisis, including the role of humans in causing it.

The roughly 150-page Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate has generated vociferous condemnation from the scientific community and a lawsuit that accuses the Trump administration of "a plan hatched and carried out in secret" to undermine scientific consensus.

The review was released last month on the same day the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rolling back a longstanding governmental finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health.

What does the report say, and how might President Donald Trump use it? Here's what you need to know:

What are the report's major conclusions?

The report acknowledged that carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas, "exerting a warming influence on climate and weather," but said evidence shows scenarios of future emissions have been overstated.

"Both models and experience suggest that CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed, and excessively aggressive mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial," the authors also wrote.

The report questioned "extreme projections of global sea level rise," stating these "are associated with an implausible extreme emissions scenario" and downplayed the frequency and intensity of droughts in the United States and worldwide.

Scientists have pushed back, saying the endeavor cherry-picks data to bolster the Trump administration's rationale for boosting the use of fossil fuels.

The report "is a really offensive regurgitation of discredited climate denial arguments," said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group.

Some scientists whose work was cited in the report also said their research was misrepresented.

The Department of Energy did not respond to requests for comment.

What is the Trump administration using the report for?

The report coincided with the EPA's proposal to repeal its own 2009 finding that greenhouse gases harm public health.

The so-called "endangerment finding" has undergirded the legal basis for much of U.S. climate policy since then.

"Right now definitely it's for the endangerment finding,” said Marc Alessi, a science fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), on the timing of the climate report, which he described as "blatantly anti-science."

"We can only speculate what it could be used on in the future, but I can say that whatever it's used in, it certainly won't be helpful for the American public," he said.

In a statement, EPA spokesperson Carolyn Holran said the agency looked at a "variety of sources and information" to determine whether the assumptions used in the endangerment finding were accurate.

How does the research compare to the work of the United Nations?

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released in 2023, found that burning fossil fuels has contributed to global warming and that action is needed by 2030 to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

That level from the Paris Agreement was already breached in 2024.

The DOE report concluded that tackling climate change could be worse than complete inaction.

"Mainstream climate economics has recognized that CO2-induced warming might have some negative economic effects, but they are too small to justify aggressive abatement policy, and trying to 'stop' or cap global warming, even at levels well above the Paris target, would be worse than doing nothing," the authors wrote.

How has the scientific community responded?

The UCS and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court on Aug. 12 alleging that the working group that crafted the report was formed illegally by not following proper disclosure and public protocols.

"The process for this sham report, conducted in secret by five known climate deniers, lacked any sort of rigour and it shows in the shoddy final product rife with errors," said Gretchen Goldman, UCS's president.

Citing longstanding practice, the EPA's Holran said the agency does not comment on current or pending litigation.

Wolf took issue with the report's claim that U.S. policymaking has a comparatively small impact on the global climate.

"When we step up reductions of fossil fuel use and we embrace green technology, that influences the rest of the world to do the same," she said.

"The official U.S. policy on climate is climate denial now."

(Reporting by David Sherfinski; Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ayla Jean Yackley.)