WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning.
The charter for the 15-member Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment — which includes academics as well as corporate representatives and other officials — expired Sunday. On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting administrator, Ben Friedman, informed the committee’s chairman that the agency would not renew the panel.
The National Climate Assessment is supposed to be issued every four years but has come out only three times since the passage of the 1990 law calling for such analysis. The next one, due for release in 2018, already has become a contentious issue for the Trump administration.
Administration officials are currently reviewing a scientific report that is key to the final document. Known as the Climate Science Special Report, it was produced by scientists from 13 different federal agencies. The report estimates that human activities were responsible for an increase in global temperatures of 1.1 to 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1951-2010.
The committee was established to help translate findings from the National Climate Assessment into concrete guidance for both public and private-sector officials. Chairman Richard Moss said in an interview Saturday that ending the group’s work was a shortsighted decision.
“It doesn’t seem to be the best course of action,” said Moss, an adjunct professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences.
Moss warned of consequences for the decisions that authorities must make on a variety of issues, including road projects. “We’re going to be running huge risks here and possibly end up hurting the next generation’s economic prospects,” he said.
But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Julie Roberts said in an email Saturday that “this action does not impact the completion of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which remains a key priority.”