National Academies Fast-Track Climate Assessment
National Academies to Review Scientific Basis of EPA’s climate Endangerment Finding
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The national Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced it will undertake a thorough review of the scientific evidence supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2009 “endangerment finding” – the determination that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare. The move comes amid renewed scrutiny of climate science under the Trump administration and follows a recent Department of Energy (DOE) report questioning the established scientific consensus. Critics have widely praised the National Academies‘ decision as a crucial step toward ensuring policy is grounded in autonomous, rigorous science.
Responding to Political Interference in Climate Science
The DOE report,released in July 2024,sparked controversy for its reliance on a small group of scientists holding views outside the mainstream climate science community. This prompted concerns about the politicization of scientific assessments and the potential rollback of climate regulations. The National Academies’ review is seen as a direct response to this situation, offering an independant assessment free from political influence.
“I think the National Academies have identified a very fundamental need that is not being met, which is the need for independent, disinterested expert advice on what the science is telling us,” said Bob Sussman, former deputy administrator of the EPA under President Clinton and senior advisor during the Obama administration. Sussman recently called for a “blue-ribbon review” of the endangerment finding in a blog post for the Environmental Law Institute.
A History of Independent Climate Assessments
This isn’t the first time the National Academies have weighed in on climate change science for the federal goverment. In 2001, they conducted a landmark review at the request of President George W. Bush’s administration. Since then, the Academies have produced numerous studies on various aspects of climate change, including:
Climate-Ready Workforce: Examining the skills needed to address climate challenges.
Enduring AI: Investigating how to power artificial intelligence in an environmentally responsible manner.
Carbon Removal Technologies: Evaluating emerging technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The Academies’ commitment to providing independent scientific advice underscores the importance of evidence-based policymaking, especially on complex issues like climate change. In 2023, they formalized this commitment by developing a rapid response capacity to address urgent scientific policy issues, with an initial assessment focused on avian influenza diagnostics.
Scientific Community Mobilizes
Andrew Dessler, director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather at Texas A&M University, emphasized the academies’ unique role. “The National Academies [where] established exactly to do things like this-to answer questions of scientific importance for the government,” he said. “This is what the DOE should have done all along, rather than hire five people who represent a tiny minority of the scientific community and have views that virtually nobody else agrees with.”
Dessler is also leading a separate effort to coordinate a response from the broader scientific community to the DOE report, intended for submission to both the DOE and EPA. He reported receiving enthusiastic support from approximately 70 academics eager to contribute, following a call for participation on the social media platform Bluesky.
While the National Academies’ review and Dessler’s effort are complementary, they have slightly different focuses. The Academies’ review will concentrate on the scientific evidence regarding the harms of greenhouse gas emissions as the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding,while Dessler’s effort will provide a more comprehensive rebuttal to the specific claims made in the DOE report.The National Academies’ undertaking signals a renewed emphasis on scientific integrity in climate policy and provides a crucial check on attempts to undermine established scientific consensus. The results of the review are expected to inform future policy decisions and reinforce the importance of evidence-based climate action.
This story originally appeared on inside Climate News.*