US Arctic climate report canceled under Trump

A benchmark US report on the state of the Arctic has been canceled, while the National Academy of Sciences has removed a climate science chapter from a judges' manual during President Donald Trump's second term.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has published the Arctic Report Card annually since 2006, did not explain why it was ending its role. NOAA said coordination of the 2026 Arctic Report Card would not be facilitated through the agency and that previous data would remain publicly available.

The 2025 Arctic Report Card found that the polar region had experienced its hottest year since records began, with effects including melting glaciers and sea ice, greening landscapes and disruptions to global weather.

Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad told AFP that the Arctic is a “bellwether of climate change” and criticised the cancellation.

The Arctic is warming several times faster than the global average, a pattern known as Arctic amplification. The supplied AFP account said loss of sea ice can add freshwater to the North Atlantic, making surface waters less dense and salty and affecting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which helps keep Europe's winters milder.

Last week, the National Academy of Sciences removed from its website a climate science chapter from a manual for judges. Trump had criticised the chapter on Truth Social as “fraudulent, biased and misleading” and accused the academy of being run by “Radical Left Democrats.”

The academy said questions about the process used to develop the chapter warranted an independent review and that the chapter would remain offline while the review is underway. A spokesperson said the review was expected to be completed in the fall.

The academy had recently released a review of climate attribution science, which examines whether individual extreme weather events can be linked to climate change. It found the science robust for many phenomena, a question relevant to climate-related cases against oil and gas companies.

Carly Phillips, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said she saw a “broad attack on attribution science,” including from Republicans in Congress seeking to outlaw climate accountability lawsuits.

The developments follow the Trump administration's February rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding, which determined that greenhouse gas pollution endangers human health and must be regulated. The rescission immediately removed federal vehicle emissions standards, while the same framework underpins limits on power plants.

Climatologist Michael Mann said the administration's actions were “a losing effort” because evidence of climate change impacts was increasing, but said that did not mean officials would stop trying.