A Second Trump Administration Threatens an Assault on Climate, Energy, and Justice Priorities

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Read what UCS experts expect from the second Trump administration on food and agriculture, global security, science and democracy, transportation, and engaging with states.

After a hard-fought close election fueled by an active campaign of disinformation, Donald Trump has won the presidency.

As advocates for solving the climate crisis, it is daunting to take stock of the new hurdles we see to progress, especially at a time when the deadly and costly impacts of climate change are so clear across the nation.

While the Union of Concerned Scientists and our supporters have deep concerns about what will come next, we know there are no sides in science. Facts do not bow to politics. The next hurricane doesn’t care if you are conservative or liberal or what political party you belong to. The science is clear: the climate crisis is real and worsening. People need real solutions and that’s what we’ll be fighting for.

We expect the new administration to attempt a long list of harmful actions to undermine climate progress, many of them outlined in the Project 2025 manifesto. UCS is primed to resist and fight back; not all of these actions are foregone conclusions—science, statutes, and public engagement will all serve to limit the worst. How much damage is done at the federal level to the progress we have made will also depend on the election outcomes inthe House of Representatives and the role it will play. The Supreme Court—which has been increasingly hostile to federal agencies—could also be a deciding factor in key instances.

At the same time, enormous clean energy momentum is already underway in states and localities all across the country, supported by shifts in governing agendas to include climate action as a priority, strengthened climate- and health-harming pollution standards, and forward-looking investment policies at the local, state, and federal levels. That commitment to the future can remain as a bulwark against repeated attacks on climate progress from the executive branch—but much is still at risk of being lost, precisely when the world requires a redoubling of action, not a slip.

The fact remains that when it comes to critical climate and public health protections, federal action is key, which is what makes the threats from a Trump administration so concerning. Based on the actions of the first Trump administration, how he campaigned, and what Project 2025 has laid out, these are some of the actions we are expecting and will respond to:

• Giveaways to the fossil fuel industry, paid for by people and the environment. Donald Trump’s campaign promises included supporting unfettered expansion of oil and gas production while reversing pivotal new clean energy provisions that facilitated the transition away from fossil fuels. This represents an outright pendulum swing from the Biden administration’s whole-of-government approach to tackling climate change. It indicates a shift in prioritization of interests, underscored by new findings that Trump’s PACs received more than $75 million from oil interests to continue receiving sweet deals from federal taxpayer subsidies while evading accountability.
• Attacks on science-informed standards and agendas. The new administration’s dramatic shift in agenda will be underpinned by actions that undermine trust in science and the capacity of administrative agencies to undertake good decision-making. We will be watching out for attempts to defund federal agencies and target career staff who have institutional knowledge and scientific expertise; rolling back or undermining agencies’ scientific integrity policies; manipulating the data and analyses used to justify public health and environmental protections; stopping essential scientific studies that advance our understanding of public health pollution harms as well as climate science, impacts, and solutions; and nominating egregious, unqualified cabinet appointees who care about power and profits, not the public interest or the mission of their agencies (such as Rex Tillerson and Scott Pruitt) 
• Regulatory rollbacks. Critical climate and public health standards that hold polluters to account—such as standards limiting climate and health-harming pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel extraction and transport—are at extreme risk of attempted weakening or outright abandonment. While the previous Trump administration ultimately saw many of its efforts fail in the courts due to neglect of statutory obligation and basic facts, even failed attempts still result in lengthy delays, which translate into significant, widespread, life-shortening, and climate-exacerbating impacts.
• Legislative rollbacks. Polluting industries have already pushed Congress to roll back provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. However, this law is benefiting people and forward-looking companies all across the nation, meaning complete roll backs are unlikely—but we expect targeted efforts to continue, especially to undo those provisions posing the greatest threat to fossil fuel industry interests.
• Threats to environmental justice and equity. The Biden administration took several historic steps to advance environmental justice priorities but many of them are likely to be in danger under a Trump administration—including efforts under the Justice40 Initiative to help ensure targeted funding and resources for disadvantaged communities, EPA grant programs to help clean up pollution in overburdened communities, and a whole-of-government approach to embed environmental justice in the work of all agencies.  
• Undermining of climate diplomacy. Trump has promised to again exit the Paris Agreement —the international agreement to try to limit the worst impacts of climate change, thus undermining global climate progress. As a rich nation and a major carbon emitter, the United States has an outsize responsibility and is key to achieving the goals of the agreement. Stepping away from it would affect US credibility and could potentially impact its ability to secure cooperation on other geopolitical, trade, and security issues that are in the national interest.

Indeed, this is a tough moment for desperately needed climate and energy progress, but we will not give up—and we want you to fight with us.

We will work to defend against rollbacks to public health safeguards and climate policies that are grounded in science and delivering tremendous benefits to people. We will highlight the importance of the work of agency scientific experts including on climate and clean energy issues, and we will call out the manipulation of science and analysis undertaken to justify polluter handouts. We will relentlessly oppose anti-science Cabinet nominees who prioritize the interests of polluters and special interests over the health and safety of people and communities, and we will support legal challenges to rollbacks of pollution standards.

UCS will continue helping to inform the science that helps underpin climate litigation, which continues to proliferate and evolve. Across the United States and its territories, dozens of communities, states, and tribes are suing the fossil fuel industry over climate deception and damages. Since the adoption of the Paris climate agreement in 2015, 86 climate lawsuits have been filed worldwide against major oil, gas, and coal corporations. Some of these cases seek compensation for climate damages, others aim to force these companies to reduce global warming emissions, still others seek to end false climate- and environment-related claims. These kinds of actions will likely gather force under a Trump administration.

UCS is mobilizing immediately with the 17,000 scientists in our network and with partners to launch an emergency campaign to fight attacks on federal science and scientists, and stop the Trump administration from politicizing science and firing the experts who help protect our communities, families, and the planet. But we will need everyone—not just scientists—to stand up for the critical role of science for climate, for health, for the well-being of all.

We will share more about these and other efforts in the weeks ahead.

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