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More than a dozen health and environmental advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States over its decision to withdraw a key climate change finding from 2009.<\/p>\n
That determination, known as the endangerment finding, had established that greenhouse gases are a risk to public health and environmental safety, given that they are the primary drivers of climate change.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n But under President Donald Trump, the endangerment finding was rescinded on February 12.<\/p>\n That prompted Wednesday\u2019s lawsuit<\/a>, the first of its kind, which alleges that the Trump administration\u2019s decision will risk the health and welfare of US citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cRepealing the Endangerment Finding endangers all of us. People everywhere will face more pollution, higher costs, and thousands of avoidable deaths,\u201d Peter Zalzal, the associate vice president of clean air strategies at Environmental Defense Fund, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.<\/p>\n The endangerment finding was considered a keystone policy for environmental regulations in the US, serving as the legal underpinning for policies to restrict greenhouse gas emissions and push clean-energy programmes.<\/p>\n But the Trump administration has led a movement to withdraw from climate-change initiatives, both domestically and on an international scale.<\/p>\n Upon returning to office in January 2025, Trump announced he would once again pull the US out of the Paris climate accord, as he had during his first term.<\/p>\n More recently, on January 7 of this year, the Republican leader issued an executive order<\/a> directing his government to end its engagement with dozens of international organisations and treaties, among them the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.<\/p>\n Trump had campaigned on the platform of slashing regulations and reinvesting in fossil fuels, often using the slogan, \u201cDrill, baby, drill.\u201d<\/p>\n He has since taken steps towards new oil exploration on federal lands and offshore, and just this month, he announced the Department of Defense would prioritise coal<\/a> for its energy production.<\/p>\n The president has coupled those actions with statements casting doubt on the science of climate change, which has been supported by decades of evidence.<\/p>\n In a speech to the UN General Assembly in September, for instance, Trump scolded world leaders for attempting to combat climate change.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n He proceeded to denounce projections that the global temperatures would warm as a result of large-scale emissions. Those predictions, he said, \u201cwere made by stupid people\u201d who had doomed their countries to \u201cno chance of success\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail. And I\u2019m really good at predicting things,\u201d he told the world leaders in the audience.<\/p>\n Rescinding the endangerment finding, however, was one of the most consequential actions Trump has taken on the domestic front to terminate clean-energy initiatives.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Withdrawing from clean-energy initiatives<\/h2>\n
\u2018Not a mere rollback\u2019<\/h2>\n