WASHINGTON—NASA this week reversed its commitment to host congressionally mandated climate change reports after the federal government’s Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) website, which was responsible for releasing the reports, unexpectedly went offline earlier this month. The reports, which consolidated findings from the nation’s top-tier climate science research, helped communities plan for wildfires, floods and extreme heat.
In a statement to Inside Climate News, the agency cited “no legal obligation” to maintain public access to archives of pre-existing National Climate Assessments, which were the country’s most comprehensive scientific reports used by researchers, lawmakers and communities to interpret climate trends and guide response efforts.
“The USGCRP met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov’s data,” said NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens. “Globalchange.gov is not a NASA domain. We never did and will not host the data.”
The Global Change Research Act of 1990 only required that the climate assessments be submitted to Congress every four years. It did not mandate public hosting or maintenance of the data online. Since the reports were presented to Congress as mandated, this legal loophole absolved NASA from the responsibility of re-hosting the climate data on its domain, allowing the agency to back away from its commitment.
This marked a clear reversal from the agency’s earlier position after globalchange.gov went inactive on June 30. At the time, NASA said it was pursuing a “technical pathway” to re-host the reports, adding that the process was in progress.
“The USGCRP website is no longer active. All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting,” Stevens told Inside Climate News on July 2, shortly after the website went offline. “NASA is currently pursuing a technical pathway to re-host the USGCRP’s statutorily-mandated reports, including the 5th National Climate Assessment, over the coming weeks.”
After what seemed like promising signs of restoration, momentum toward restoring public access to the climate data has stalled, and no other federal agency has committed to re-hosting the data or the reports. The reversal sparked concern among climate experts about the Trump administration’s repeated attacks on climate science.
“The National Climate Assessment translates complex climate change science into information usable by the public and local officials to prepare communities for heat waves, fires and floods,” said Patrick Gonzalez, a co-author of the third and fourth National Climate Assessments and a climate scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “The current administration endangers the American people by denying these scientific facts.”
Tom Di Liberto, a former climate scientist and public affairs specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the climate resources gathered in the reports were some of the most thorough, definitive pieces of information on climate impacts in the United States.
“It’s another attack on the country’s preparedness for dealing with current and future impacts of climate change,” said Di Liberto, who spent nearly 15 years at NOAA. “It’s now more difficult for people who aren’t climate scientists to understand what’s happening and access the necessary information to make the right decisions for their communities.”
Di Liberto said he hoped for other agencies to step in and host the data for the benefit of the public.
Rachel Brittin, former deputy director of NOAA’s external affairs office, said the lack of access and transparency “weakens our ability to prepare for climate impacts, and leaves communities, businesses and policymakers flying blind.”
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which oversaw the USGCRP, has not addressed the situation publicly and did not respond to requests for comment.
The National Climate Assessments were meticulous and well-sourced reports produced every four years by a team of expert scientists across multiple federal agencies. They collected the best available research on climate change trends in the United States and its effects across multiple sectors like health, transportation, agriculture and energy. The reports, grounded in peer-reviewed science, were publicly accessible and widely used by lawmakers, state and local officials, and educators to make informed decisions and mitigate climate change threats.
Archives of previous reports can still be found through third-party archives like The Wayback Machine or buried in the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Science Inventory.” Other climate scientists uploaded copies of the assessments to their own personal websites as well.
The decision to halt the climate data restoration process came under the leadership of Sean Duffy, whom Trump named as the new interim head of NASA last week, adding to Duffy’s existing role as secretary of transportation. NASA, unlike NOAA, is an independent agency. Trump appointed Duffy to lead the space agency after withdrawing his original pick, Jared Isaacman, in late May. In a July 6 post on Truth Social, the president said tech billionaire Elon Musk suggested Isaacman, a close friend from the space industry, to run NASA. Trump said he thought Isaacman was “very good” but ultimately pulled the nomination ahead of a full Senate confirmation vote because he was a “blue-blooded Democrat, who had never contributed to a Republican before.”
Climate experts said this raised concerns about increased political interference within scientific agencies.
“Climate science belongs to the public,” said Brittin. “It’s not a partisan football.”
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Finya Swai is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, specializing in Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs. She earned her B.A. in English from Gettysburg College in 2020 and brings professional experience in both marketing and secondary education, having worked with students in grades 5 through 12. Originally from Seattle she is currently based in Washington, D.C., and enjoys reading and kickboxing in her free time.
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