Project 2025's Environmental and Climate Policy Proposals - Doctors of the World

Project 2025’s Environmental and Climate Policy Proposals

 

This article is the fourth in a series that highlights the dangerous implications of a second Trump Administration and Project 2025 on the environmental health and safety of millions in the U.S.

Over the past few years, the world has witnessed a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and mudslides have caused widespread destruction and claimed the lives of thousands. In the Horn of Africa, severe drought has triggered a widespread famine, while Pakistan endured one of its worst flood seasons in history, brought on by unprecedented rainfall.

Doctors of the World has been actively responding to these climate crises and will continue to address future ones. However, humanitarian aid can only serve as a temporary solution. To mitigate the death and destruction caused by climate disasters, the global community must take urgent action on climate change.

The United States currently plays a key leadership role in global climate discussions, driving progress through trade agreements, innovation, and technological advancements. However, with the upcoming general elections, this leadership could be at risk. Project 2025 proposes to eliminate climate change from U.S. policy, which would not only undermine domestic progress but also strain international relations.

Project 2025’s proposed policies towards the environment and climate change are widespread including removal of environmental protections, ramping up the production of fossil fuels, undermining chemical regulation, repealing climate legislation, and rolling back climate action. 

The consequences of Project 2025 could be catastrophic, both domestically and abroad. Just this past year, the U.S. experienced some of its most severe storms along its coasts. While low-income countries will bear the greatest burden of climate change, the U.S. will not be spared from the serious repercussions of inaction.

 

Gutting Environmental Protections: 

 

Project 2025’s first target is the elimination of key environmental protections in the U.S., starting with the dismantling of the Clean Air Act. Originally enacted in 1963, the Clean Air Act defines the EPA’s role in safeguarding air quality and the ozone layer. Under Project 2025, the EPA would lose its authority to set health-based air quality standards, severely weakening regulations meant to reduce pollution and protect public health.

The far-right agenda also aims to strip protections from public lands, beginning with the repeal of the Antiquities Act. This would remove the president’s power to designate national monuments, leaving vital public lands and waters unprotected.

Additionally, the policy seeks to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of their actions and ensures communities have a voice in local decisions. Without NEPA, the public would lose the ability to provide input on significant projects like pipelines and other industrial developments, jeopardizing both environmental and community well-being.

 

Increased Exploitation of Public Lands for Fossil Fuels

 

While much of the world is working to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, Project 2025 aims to significantly increase their use. The far-right agenda plans to direct federal agencies to maximize oil and gas extraction on public lands, including expanding the Willow Project—the largest proposed oil and gas development on U.S. public lands, located in Alaska. It also seeks to promote the approval of controversial projects like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, both of which have faced strong opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous communities.

Additionally, the agenda pushes for new drilling projects in protected areas, such as oil exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters wilderness. These projects threaten to cause irreversible harm to local climates, endanger numerous species, and destabilize fragile ecosystems.

As one of the world’s largest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S. would see its pollution levels surge if Project 2025 moves forward, adding billions of tons of carbon to the atmosphere. In the process, vast, pristine landscapes that support diverse ecosystems could be lost forever.

 

Undermining Chemical Regulations and Science 

 

The U.S. has experienced several major scandals related to chemical regulations, leading to serious health issues and even deaths. In 1999, a lawsuit against DuPont revealed that the company had been dumping chemical waste into a nearby community’s water supply, causing higher rates of cancer and other illnesses. In 2023, DuPont and other chemical firms again faced legal action after being accused of knowingly contaminating drinking water supplies across the country, eventually agreeing to a settlement.

Strong chemical regulation is vital to protect public health, yet repeat offenses like these show the devastating impact of lax oversight. Project 2025 threatens to further erode these protections, with its authors pushing for the EPA to rely more heavily on industry-funded science and to cease funding major research into toxic chemical exposure.

The agenda would also make it harder to regulate hazardous chemicals by imposing an unreasonably high burden of proof on the EPA, effectively allowing chemical companies more freedom to introduce toxic substances into our air, water, and consumer products.

Moreover, Project 2025 advocates for increased production of PFAS, often called “forever chemicals” due to their extreme persistence in the environment—some lasting over 1,000 years. Research has already linked PFAS to reproductive issues, developmental delays, and increased cancer risks. These chemicals are also a major contributor to plastic waste and microplastics in our oceans, food, and water. By promoting these harmful substances, Project 2025 disregards the evidence-based risks and exposes communities to long-term, irreversible harm.

 

Rolling Back Climate Action and Clean Energy Investments

 

Project 2025 goes beyond ignoring climate change—it seeks to deny its very existence. Each year, new climate records are shattered, from more intense hurricanes to increasingly dangerous heat waves. Denying climate change not only ignores reality but puts communities at tremendous risk, forcing them to face escalating disasters without adequate support as conditions worsen.

The agenda aims to remove climate action from policy entirely, repealing crucial legislation that has been pushing the U.S. toward a more sustainable future. It calls for the rollback of climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest clean energy bill in U.S. history, along with eliminating incentives for renewable energy, electric vehicles, and other climate solutions. This would not only mean missing critical climate targets but also wiping out clean energy investments and more than a million jobs created in the sector.

Project 2025 would also decimate climate research, increasing the likelihood of unchecked climate disasters that could devastate communities. The plan seeks to dismantle government offices and agencies focused on climate science, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service, to be replaced by private companies. Although the National Hurricane Center would remain, the agenda insists its data be “presented neutrally,” without any focus on the climate debate. However, since the National Hurricane Center relies heavily on data from the National Weather Service—as do most private weather services—eliminating public weather data would drastically reduce Americans’ access to accurate forecasts.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, which was funded under the Biden administration, would also be shut down, as well as climate research initiatives within the Department of Energy. 

 

Threats to Global Climate Leadership and National Security

 

During his term, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement—a landmark commitment by 196 countries to combat climate change—facing widespread backlash from the international community and environmental organizations. While President Biden reinstated the U.S. into the agreement, Project 2025 would once again see the country withdraw from both the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Such a move would not only heighten the risks of severe climate disasters but also strain international relations and potentially lead other countries to follow suit, compounding the environmental crisis.

 

Beyond abandoning international climate agreements, the far-right agenda would also sever U.S. financial support for the World Bank and climate-related global initiatives. The climate crisis disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), even though they contribute far less to global carbon pollution. These regions, often located in more climate-vulnerable areas, face compounded risks due to instability and poverty. As one of the world’s largest polluters, the U.S. has a responsibility to assist those affected. Without its financial backing, the World Bank would struggle to respond to ongoing climate-related disasters like droughts, floods, and famines, leaving millions at risk. Along with the World Bank, the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) program would also come to an end, cutting off support for communities vulnerable to extreme weather in developing countries. 

By failing to recognize climate change as a national security threat, Project 2025 is exposing both U.S. citizens and international communities to escalating climate disasters. As storms, droughts, heatwaves, and famines intensify, global instability will worsen, directly threatening U.S. security. In 2022, there were 36.2 million climate refugees, but experts warn that this number could soar to 1.2 billion by 2050. With dwindling global resources like clean water and food, the likelihood of conflicts that extend beyond borders will increase. Taking action now, by supporting climate initiatives both domestically and internationally, is essential to reducing the risk of global instability.

 

Conclusion: 

 

The consequences of inaction on climate change are already visible around the world. At Doctors of the World, we are responding to an increasing number of climate-related emergencies. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we are assisting survivors of one of the worst flooding incidents in South Kivu. In the Horn of Africa, we are tracking and treating malnutrition caused by ongoing drought and famine. Unfortunately, these crises will only worsen, and humanitarian aid alone cannot address the root cause without strong policy measures.

While the effects of Project 2025 will be felt globally, they will also have a severe impact on Americans. U.S. carbon emissions are projected to increase by 2.7 billion tons by 2030, while over 1.7 million jobs could be lost due to reduced investments in renewable energy. This would also result in a $320 billion hit to the U.S. GDP. As our dependence on fossil fuels grows, so will household costs.

This year’s U.S. general election will have far-reaching consequences for the global community. Addressing and reversing rising global temperatures will require U.S. leadership, along with innovative policies and strengthened international cooperation. This election will determine whether we, as a global community, can effectively respond to climate change—or fail to do so. 

 

Photography: 

© MDMGermany

© Saiyna – Bashir

© Caroline-Thirion

 

Sources:

Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed? – BBC News

What Project 2025 Would Do to the Environment – and How We Will Respond – Earthjustice.

Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Global Climate Action – Center for American Progress

Project 2025 promises billions of tonnes more carbon pollution – study | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Donald Trump’s Project 2025 Puts Polluters Over People, Democrats Invest in America’s Climate and Clean Energy Future

What Project 2025 would do to climate policy in the US