'Trump’s rollbacks won’t deter global climate collaboration'

 President Donald Trump has reversed a key scientific ruling that concluded a range of greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. 

The decision comes as important climate workshops held by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the University of Reading come to an end. 

Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, Head of the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences at the University of Reading, comments on the Trump administration’s decision. 

"Trump's reversal of the endangerment finding ignores decades of scientific consensus built through international collaboration. The 2009 finding concluded that greenhouse gases threaten public health, based on comprehensive assessment of global scientific evidence. It reflected understanding developed by thousands of researchers worldwide across multiple disciplines.

“This reversal of important regulation weakens the legal foundation for federal climate action across transport, energy and industry. The endangerment finding has been the legal bedrock for regulating emissions from vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities. Removing it doesn't change the underlying science, but it dismantles the policy framework supported by science.

“The retreat of the US federal administration from science-based climate policy comes at precisely the moment when scientific evidence for urgent action has never been stronger. Many consumers, industries and governments worldwide have benefited from consistent regulation. Building the supply chains and markets for cleaner technologies is harder without it. 

“Climate impacts don't respect national borders. Cutting regulations might reduce some short-term costs for some American industries,but it won't reduce the wildfires, floods and heatwaves that scientific evidence links to greenhouse gas emissions. The costs of climate impacts caused by increasing emissions far outweigh any short-term savings. 

“At the University of Reading, we understand the importance of international climate science collaboration. We contributed more scientists to the last IPCC assessment report, AR6, than any other UK university and three academic experts covering law, net-zero and climate action are contributing to the forthcoming AR7 report. 

“The IPCC workshops at the University of Reading will make future IPCC reports like AR7 more robust and inclusive, and it is ironic that they happened in the same week that the US Federal government made this policy choice. Over three days, climate experts from Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, the Philippines and dozens of other countries worked on two critical challenges for understanding our future climate - how to integrate diverse knowledge into climate assessments, and how to use artificial intelligence to review the exponentially growing volume of climate research.

“These workshops show climate scientists at their best. By collaboratingto assess and synthesise the latest evidence, they are producing the robust and comprehensive assessments. Governments rely on these assessments to address the growing challenge of climate change, andI’m proud that the University of Reading played a role in helping the IPCCto achieve this. 

Notes to editors: 

Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez is available for interview. Contact the University of Reading Press Office on 0118 378 5757 or pressoffice@reading.ac.uk. 

Find out more about the IPCC workshops at the University of Reading: Major IPCC workshops bring diverse climate voices to Reading