1. Major investment in fossil fuels
The same day Trump took office, he declared an energy emergency, aiming to increase the extraction of fossil fuels, although some renewable energy is included.
The Inrikesdepartementet has resumed coal mining on millions of acres of public land. It has also opened up for more oil and gas extraction, particularly at sea. And it has expanded logging in the US national parks, says Katherine Browne, who leads a research group on climate risks at SEI (Stockholm Environment Institute).
2. Eased environmental regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is fundamentally changed.
, wants to "lower the price of buying a car, heating homes and running businesses". In March, plans were presented to abolish around 25 requirements for restrictions on everything from the amount of soot particles in chimneys to mercury emissions.A law that would reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas methane has also been withdrawn.
3. Blow to research
The Trump administration has a particular axe to grind with research on diversity and inclusion, but the President also appears to be targeting climate research. The US Department of Commerce has instructed its agencies to identify contributions to research containing words such as "climate research" and "clean". The Health Agency, NIH, has said it will halt research on health effects related to climate change.
They have frozen a lot of climate research at NOAA and NSF. Some claim that it has rolled back our technical understanding of the climate to the 1950s, says Browne.
The Trump administration has also cut funding for a major climate assessment, whose five editions have been submitted at regular intervals to Congress since 2000.
One thing the report does is to highlight the economic costs of climate change, primarily disasters and weather impacts. It is a clear attempt to suppress such, says Browne, who herself contributed to the fourth report.
4. Staff cuts at agencies
The US government, together with tech billionaire Elon Musk's organization Doge, has wielded the axe in agency-USA. Thousands of researchers are among those who have been laid off. At the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, it has been drastically.
So there are very few people left who can actually ensure that the rules that still apply are followed, says Browne.
5. Slaughter of USAID
Last year, the US invested in helping poor countries reduce their emissions or adapt to climate change. This amounts to 8 percent of global climate financing, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. The dismantling of the aid agency USAID has also cut off access to funds for everything from rainforest projects to protecting endangered species.
6. Influence campaign against IMF and World Bank
The US is pushing for an overhaul of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two key financiers of international climate efforts. Finance Minister Scott Bessent thinks that IMF has wasted too much time on "work against climate change, gender and social issues".
It has a kind of hindering or cooling effect where the World Bank and IMF previously tried to develop towards more climate-focused work, says Browne.
7. Braking wind power
Trump has called the wind power industry "junk" and has stopped approvals for new wind farms on state land, both on land and at sea. Authorities have also been instructed to freeze new permits even on private land.
8. Countering electric vehicles
Many of the Biden administration's general environmental initiatives have been frozen or shut down. The agency that buys vehicles has paused plans to purchase electric vehicles, and investments in electric charging stations have also been stopped
9. Imposing sky-high tariffs on solar cells
Tariffs of up to 3,521 percent await solar cells imported to the US from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. It is unclear whether the punitive tariffs will result in increased domestic production.
10. Opening up the seas for exploitation
On April 17, the White House announced that commercial fishing would be allowed in large protected areas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Trump has also instructed NOAA to issue permits for companies to extract minerals on the ocean floor, both in their own and international waters.
11. Tariffs hit low-cost online shopping
The trade war between the US and China is expected to hit the Chinese online giants Shein and Temu, which sell cheap goods online. This trade takes place largely via air freight, leading to large climate emissions. Here, a Trump measure may lead to a climate win.
