U.S. President Donald Trump has already done everything in his power to undermine the climate protection efforts of his predecessors. Now, he aims to deliver the final blow with a drastic move. Greenhouse gases endanger human life — that has been the simple guiding principle of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 2009. The Clean Air Act, which legally enforces environmental regulations, particularly for cars and trucks, is based on this finding.
Science to Be Ignored Now, the U.S. government plans to eliminate this so-called "endangerment finding," effectively dismissing the scientific consensus on human-induced global warming. According to reports from U.S. media, the EPA has submitted a document to the White House that would revoke the threat assessment. This move comes at the direct request of Trump, who appointed longtime ally Lee Zeldin as head of the EPA in early 2025.
“The Trump administration will not sacrifice national wealth, energy security, and the freedom of our people for policies that restrict our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choices,” Zeldin said at the time. A former Biden legal advisor told The Washington Post that the new regulation is unlikely to survive in court. However, until a final judicial ruling is made, the change could have a significant impact on U.S. climate policy for years to come.
In the meantime, there would be no legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Legal Tug-of-War Looms Lawsuits from environmental organizations are expected to challenge the repeal of the endangerment finding. “There is no legal basis for it,” said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to The Washington Post. “They're trying to completely undermine the Clean Air Act by saying, ‘Well, this simply isn’t dangerous.’
That claim clearly contradicts the evidence,” said Doniger, an environmental lawyer. If this reversal holds up in court, Trump could effectively dismantle nearly all restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. Since the United States is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China — and has significantly higher per capita CO₂ emissions — this would be a devastating blow to the global fight against climate change.
A Radical Shift Would Accelerate Global Warming The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius has already been practically missed. To achieve it, the world would need to cut all climate-damaging emissions to zero within the next three years. But with the looming threat of a radical shift in U.S. policy, global warming would only accelerate further.
During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised massive rollbacks of environmental policies and pushed for a major expansion of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas — under the slogan “Drill, baby, drill.” As a presidential candidate, he received the equivalent of more than €85 million in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry.
