The USA’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a research division of the US Department of Energy that focuses on renewable energy sources, said on 6 May that it had laid off 114 employees owing to federal budget cuts, stop work orders and new directives.
Several other climate research groups have also suffered. The administration has ‘released’ scientists working on the National Climate Assessment, effectively cancelling the foundational report that details the effects of climate change on the nation, regions, and local areas.
This follows its budget proposal to eliminate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration support for weather and climate research, and reports that all the staff working on the US Global Change Research Program, the federal staff responsible for the National Climate Assessment, had been laid off.
The measures brought a swift reaction in a statement from Ticora Jones, chief science officer at NRDC (National Resource Defense Council). “Putting the nation’s head in the sand doesn’t make the threats go away – it only makes it harder to prepare for the worsening economic, security, health, and quality of life problems barrelling our way.
“This assessment is so important because it lets every American know how climate change affects their community _ or even their own backyard.
“Cutting federal climate research won’t eliminate the threats from intense heat waves, unprecedented hurricanes, or devastating flooding, it will just make our nation far less able to prepare for them.”
Budget for fiscal 2026
Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for unprecedented cuts to scientific agencies that, if enacted, would deal a devastating blow to US science, policy specialists say.
The budget document released by the White House on 2 May for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on 1 October calls for disproportionately large cuts for federal science funding. According to the document, the proposals would cut all non-defence spending by 23%, but it singles out the US National Science Foundation for a 56% funding reduction, and would cut the budget of the US National Institutes of Health by roughly 40%. The Environmental Protection Agency, which on the same day announced plans to dismantle its primary research division, The Office of Research and Development (ORD), would be hit by a 55% cut as the administration seeks to eliminate what it calls ‘radical’ and ‘woke’ climate programmes.
Ultimately it is the US Congress that decides how the federal budget will be spent, not the president. But Trump’s proposal is a starting point for congressional negotiations, and there are signs that many members of Congress will go along with Trump’s recommendations – he has a Republican majority in both houses of Congress.
In a statement, US representative Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that the budget “lays the foundation for restoring a government that serves the people – not itself.”
However science-policy experts say the budget could be disastrous for the next generation of scientists. “The message that this sends to young scientists is that this country is not a place for you,” says Michael Lubell, a physicist who tracks science policy at the City University of New York in New York City. “If I were starting my career, I would be out of here in a heartbeat.”
Under Trump’s proposals, the 2026 budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the world’s leading funders of basic research, would drop roughly US$5 billion, a cut of about half compared to its 2024 budget. The budget targets climate science, clean energy, and “woke” social, behavioural, and economic sciences. It would also cut “broadening participation” programmes, which aim to attract members of underrepresented groups to science, by $1.1 billion, a roughly 80% reduction from the last few years.
Although the funding for artificial intelligence (AI) research and quantum sciences would be kept at current levels, it is unclear how well the agency itself will function: the budget calls for a $93 million cut to operations, a 20% decrease. Media reports suggest that half of the NSF staff could be terminated. If the cuts go through,
Other proposed cuts: The National Institutes of Health would be cut from $48bn to $27bn, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by $9.6 billion roughly a third, and NASA’s budget would drop 24.3% from its 2025 level, to $18.8 billion in 2026.
