Earth News from TerraDaily.com
US cuts in funding risk climate research 'blind' spots: EU monitors
Brussels, Belgium, Jan 14 (AFP) Jan 14, 2026
US President Donald Trump's planned science funding cuts could create blind spots in climate research but his policies did not impact a closely-watched annual report on global warming, officials from the EU's climate monitor told AFP.

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service releases monthly and annual reports on the state of the climate, which partly rely on data from US government agencies.

Its latest Global Climate Highlights report, published Wednesday, concluded that 2025 was the third hottest year on record after all-time highs in 2023 and 2024.

Copernicus uses billions of satellite and weather observations from land and at sea, including from US agencies, with records dating back many decades.

"The US is still a reliable supplier of data for forecasts," Florian Pappenberger, the director general of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus, told AFP.

"At the moment we have seen ... no operational impact" from the announced cuts, he said.

Pappenberger, however, voiced concern about the potential loss of any data in the future.

"Losing observations is a worrying thing for any weather forecaster because the availability and the quantity of observations is directly linked to the quality of weather forecasts," he said.

"The worry is that you stop an existing observation system and therefore don't have the data for a future exercise of creating these types of reports."

Trump has pursued deep cuts to federal climate science and Earth-observation funding, including programs that contribute data to international monitoring networks.

US lawmakers have drafted 2026 spending bills that would reject Trump's cuts to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but the legislation has not yet been finalised.

Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said coordination with NASA and NOAA "has continued all the same" but potential US cuts are "a risk we need to consider".

The United States, for example, is a major financial contributor to an international ocean data program, which consists of robotic floats that drift under water for days and resurface to beam information to satellites.

"If we lose deep ocean observation, this will make us blind for a number of years," Buontempo told AFP.





Space News from SpaceDaily.com
UAE extends Mars probe mission until 2028
Exolaunch to deploy five satellites on Spectrum mission from Norway
Sateliot books Spanish Miura 5 launch for two next gen Trito satellites in 2027

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Junk to high-tech: India bets on e-waste for critical minerals
Indonesia coal plant closure U-turn sows energy transition doubts
Indonesia capital faces 'filthy' trash crisis

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
EU top diplomat rejects Europe 'bashing' by US as calls grow for a US reset
European debate over nuclear weapons gains pace
Supreme leader says Iran can sink US warship as Geneva talks conclude

24/7 News Coverage
Slow mantle flow built Antarctica gravity low over tens of millions of years
Southern Indian Ocean waters lose salt as climate shifts currents
Coffee regions hit by extra days of extreme heat: scientists


ADVERTISEMENT



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.