Donald Trump has repealed the scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, marking the most sweeping climate rollback of his administration to date.
He called the endangerment finding “a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely harmed the American auto industry and raised costs for consumers.”
Trump’s repeal ends CO₂ regulations for new vehicles, meaning automakers will face fewer climate-related requirements – potentially slowing global progress on emissions reductions.
The UK could feel indirect effects.
Trump also signed legislation killing Biden-era tax credits aimed at accelerating the deployment of electric cars and renewable energy.
Former President Barack Obama blasted the move on X: “We will be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money”.
Trump has labelled climate change as a “con job”
The US President announced the repeal beside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House budget director Russ Vought, who has long sought to revoke the finding.
Trump’s reversal of the scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health adds to a series of regulatory cuts that have encouraged unfettered fossil fuel development and hindered the deployment of clean energy.
Trump has long dismissed climate change as a “con job.”
Among his actions with global repercussions, he notably withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, despite the country having been the largest historical contributor to global warming and a central player in international climate efforts.
The endangerment finding was first adopted by the United States in 2009. It led the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act of 1963 to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and four other heat-trapping air pollutants from vehicles, power plants and other industries.
It came about after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 in the Massachusetts vs. EPA case that the agency has authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Trump’s repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, but may not initially apply to stationary sources such as power plants.
The transportation and power sectors are each responsible for around a quarter of US greenhouse gas output, according to EPA figures.
The White House called the reversal the ‘largest deregulation in American history’ (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS)The EPA said the repeal and end of vehicle emission standards will save US taxpayers $1.3 trillion, while the prior administration said the rules would have net benefits to consumers through lower fuel costs and other savings.
Car makers have mixed feelings
Trump’s rollback of emission and fuel‑efficiency standards is projected to increase CO₂ emissions substantially, making climate change worse than it would be under stronger regulation. But what do the car makers think?
The US Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing major automakers, did not endorse the action but said “automotive emissions regulations finalised in the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace demand for EVs.”
Lee Zeldin the spokesperson for the Environmental Defense Fund said: “This action will only lead to more of pollution, higher costs and real harms for American families.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the EPA aimed to cut passenger vehicle fleetwide tailpipe emissions by nearly 50 per cent by 2032 compared with 2027 projected levels and forecast between 35 per cent and 56 per cent of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would need to be electric.
The agency then estimated that the rules would result in net benefits of $99 billion annually through 2055, including $46 billion in reduced fuel costs, and $16 billion in reduced maintenance and repair costs for drivers.
Consumers were expected to save an average of $6,000 over the lifetime of new vehicles from reduced fuel and maintenance costs.
Electric cars in the UK
In the UK, the electric vehicle uptake is strong and growing, with electric cars taking a significant share of new registrations and expected to reach around 29 per cent market share in 2026.
The UK government has clear targets and phase-out dates for non-zero-emission vehicles through 2030/2035.
Trump’s rollback in the US will not directly change UK targets, but could affect global automaker strategy, international pressure for climate action and competitive dynamics in electric vehicle markets.
Do Trump’s climate change claims stack-up in UK?
There is strong scientific evidence that climate change is already affecting the UK’s weather and environmental conditions, including heavier rainfall, hotter temperatures and rising flood risk.
The Met Office reports that winter rainfall has increased by around 10-20 per cent since the 1960s. Heavy rainfall events are becoming more intense.
Warmer air holds more moisture, leading to heavier downpours when it rains. Average annual temperatures in the UK have risen by about 1°C since the early 20th century, with most occurring since the 1980s.
Sea levels around the UK have risen 16-20cm since 1900. Storm surges now start from a higher baseline because of sea-level rise. More intense rainfall has increased flash flooding.
Hotter summers in the UK are increasing evaporation, drying soils faster. Some regions (especially southeast England) are seeing greater summer water stress.
The US led the way with cuts to regulations, incentives and jobs last year, in turn putting pressure on the EU to weaken flagship climate rules and prompting Canada to put policies in place that will boost oil and gas production in the face of trade from the Trump administration.
The setbacks occurred as scientists and officials warned the world was on course to overshoot the lower temperature limits of the Paris agreement of a 1.5°C rise since pre-industrial times. The past three years have ranked the hottest on record, bringing wildfires, extreme heat, floods and storms globally.
The coal industry celebrated Trump’s actions
The coal industry celebrated Trump’s announcement saying it would help stave off retirements of aging coal-fired power plants.
In the US, utilities have announced plans to retire more than 55,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation over the next five years.
America’s Power President and CEO Michelle Bloodworth said reversing these retirement decisions could help offset the need to build new, more expensive electricity sources and prevent the loss of reliability attributes, such as fuel security, that the coal fleet provides.
Legal action could be taken against the decision
Legal experts said the policy reversal could lead to a surge in lawsuits known as “public nuisance” actions – a pathway blocked following a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gas regulation should be left in the hands of the EP instead of the courts.
“This may be another classic case where overreach by the Trump administration comes back to bite it,” said Robert Percival, a University of Maryland environmental law professor.
Environmental groups have slammed the proposed repeal as a danger to the climate.
Future US administrations seeking to regulate greenhouse gas emissions likely would need to reinstate the endangerment finding, a task that could be politically and legally complex.
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But environmental groups are confident that the courts will continue their track record of backing the EPA’s authority to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases.
Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, have said they will challenge the reversal in court, setting off what could be a years-long legal battle up to the Supreme Court.
“There’ll be a lawsuit brought almost immediately, and we’ll see in them in court. And we will win,” said David Doniger, senior attorney at the NRDC.
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