National Academies: Climate change’s harms ‘beyond scientific dispute’

 In response to the Trump administration repeatedly saying otherwise, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on Wednesday issued a report that emphasized that climate change’s harms are “beyond scientific dispute.”

The report from the National Academies, which seek to provide science that informs the government, comes as a rebuke to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to overturn a 2009 determination that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to the public.

“The evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused GHGs is beyond scientific dispute,” the report says, referring to greenhouse gases. 

“Much of the understanding of climate change that was uncertain or tentative in 2009 is now resolved and new threats have been identified,” it says. “The United States faces a future in which climate-induced harm continues to worsen and today’s extremes become tomorrow’s norms.”

The National Academies undertook the report after the EPA proposed to overturn the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which determined that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare.

The endangerment finding also underlies climate regulations, and the proposal to overturn it came alongside a proposal to revoke car emission rules.

Shirley Tilghman, chair of the committee that wrote Wednesday’s report, said in a written statement the study was done “with the ultimate aim of informing the EPA … as it considers the status of the endangerment finding.”

“We are hopeful that the evidence summarized here shows the strong base of scientific evidence available to inform sound decision-making,” Tilghman added.

In response, an EPA spokesperson reiterated the administration’s concerns with the Obama-era finding.

“The Endangerment Finding has been used by the Obama and Biden Administrations to justify trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations covering new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. 

“As we saw in the 16 intervening years since the Endangerment Finding was made, many of the extremely pessimistic predictions and assumptions EPA relied upon have not materialized as expected. EPA welcomes all public comments on the proposal through September 22, 2025, and the agency looks forward to responding to a diverse array of perspectives on this issue,” the statement continued.

In their report, the National Academies concluded the 2009 finding “was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence.”

“Changes in climate resulting from human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases harm the welfare of people in the United States,” the report says, pointing to “negative impacts on agricultural crops and livestock,” as well as “climate-related changes in water availability and quality” and harmful algal blooms and other stressors on communities and infrastructure.