Government accountability and corporate accountability is at the heart of any meaningful response to climate change. Accountability is how we recognize past harm, demand responsible action today, and ensure polluters can’t operate without consequences. In its absence, communities bear the brunt of rising climate impacts, public health threats, and economic losses. Yet the Trump administration is doing everything it can to erode that principle. Through its latest disinformation-laden report from the Department of Energy (DOE) and its attack on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Endangerment Finding, this administration is undermining public health and climate science, and trying to escape accountability.
Their attack stands in sharp contrast to the direction of the global community, which is moving toward greater climate responsibility. The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) recent advisory opinion underscores how science and law can work hand-in-hand to establish clear obligations for countries and ensure justice for those most affected by climate change. While the ICJ embraced the science as a cornerstone for climate action, the Trump administration is doubling down on disinformation and denial, including through cherry-picking and reiterating fossil fuel industry talking points.
The stakes of this are high. Attacking the Endangerment Finding and legitimizing industry-aligned disinformation weaken existing climate protections and embolden broader efforts to discredit science and block climate action. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 underscores just how dangerous this is, identifying misinformation and disinformation as the top short-term global threat, eroding trust and undermining society’s ability to respond to crises like climate change. In this moment, scientists, legal experts, and advocates must speak up to defend climate science, push back on disinformation, and preserve tools for accountability.
Why the Endangerment Finding matters
The 2009 Endangerment Finding, issued by the US EPA, determined that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. This foundational scientific and legal determination underpins the United States’ ability to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act. It is a critical backbone for federal action on vehicle emissions, power plant standards, and broader climate policy.
Undoing the Endangerment Finding would gut existing regulatory tools and strip away a key legal mechanism for holding governments and corporations accountable for their climate harms. The Endangerment Finding is more than a technical detail: it’s a statement that the US recognizes the threat of climate change and commits to doing something about it to protect people’s health and well-being.
But that commitment is now under coordinated attack. The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Endangerment Finding are part of a broader playbook to sow doubt, delay regulation, and protect fossil fuel interests at the expense of science, public health, and justice.
The DOE report: A fossil fuel industry echo chamber
In July, the Department of Energy released a 140+ page document masquerading as a scientific assessment. Authored by well-known climate contrarians—John Christy, Judith Curry, Steven Koonin, Ross McKitrick, and Roy Spencer—the report dismisses scientific consensus, twists the science, baselessly questions the reliability of climate models, casts doubt on the proven links between climate change and extreme weather, and cherry-picks data to manufacture unwarranted uncertainty.
This is not an objective scientific document. It’s a political statement dressed in scientific language, designed to undermine legitimate climate science and support the Trump administration’s broader efforts to roll back climate protections.
This report’s authors have deep and well-documented ties to the fossil fuel industry. Christy and Spencer’s satellite research was long championed by ExxonMobil. Koonin served as chief scientist at BP. McKitrick and Curry have each worked with industry-funded think tanks.
By granting this work federal legitimacy, the administration is amplifying disinformation to justify regulatory rollbacks and protect polluters. You can learn more about how to identify and push back on disinformation here.
Escalating attacks
The DOE report was only the opening move in a larger campaign. Reporting shows that the Trump administration is preparing a sustained effort to undermine climate science, including plans for staged “debates” and attempts to rewrite the National Climate Assessment. These efforts are designed not to advance knowledge, but to create the false impression that core scientific conclusions remain unsettled.
The reality is clear: thousands of peer-reviewed studies conducted over decades show that burning fossil fuels is driving climate change, with devastating consequences for people and ecosystems. That consensus is not in question. What the administration is doing instead is amplifying a small circle of contrarian voices with deep ties to fossil fuel interests, hoping to manufacture the appearance of scientific controversy where none exists.
This strategy follows a familiar playbook: emphasizing uncertainty, elevating fringe perspectives, and recycling arguments long addressed within the scientific community. Experts warn that the goal is not genuine debate, but delay that will provide political cover to weaken climate protections and dismantle accountability mechanisms like the Endangerment Finding.
The ICJ: a global counterpoint
While the US Administration undermines science, the world’s highest court has done the opposite.
Last month, the ICJ issued its climate advisory opinion on states’ legal obligations related to climate change. Requested by the United Nations General Assembly and led by a coalition of Pacific Island nations, the ICJ’s opinion represents one of the strongest legal endorsements of climate science to date.
The Court embraced the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), affirmed the value of climate models, and recognized the role of attribution science in determining states’ contributions to climate change. It explicitly stated that it is “scientifically possible to determine each State’s total contribution to global emissions, taking into account both historical and current emissions” (para. 429).
The ICJ didn’t shy away from complexity. It engaged with the best available evidence and grounded its legal conclusions in scientific fact. This is accountability elevated to the highest level of international governance, rooted firmly in scientific fact.
The US may retreat, but the world moves forward
The ICJ ruling joins a growing chorus of international legal bodies like the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that are affirming the connection between science, responsibility, and justice. Governments, civil society, and courts are increasingly recognizing that climate change demands action and accountability.
And accountability is fundamental. Without accountability, the public is being forced to absorb the costs of climate change. While fossil fuel companies enjoy billions in subsidies, tax breaks, and regulatory rollbacks, families across the US are losing homes, livelihoods, and lives to climate-fueled disasters. As UCS analyst Laura Peterson writes, “We cannot allow our elected representatives to make the US public absorb all the danger from climate change and pay for it too.”
Accountability is also a matter of truth. The fossil fuel industry spent decades sowing doubt about climate science while knowing full well the risks.Their disinformation campaigns delayed action, increased harm, and violated public trust. Efforts to now dismantle the Endangerment Finding or promote denialist reports are a continuation of that deceit.
Without accountability, the cycle repeats. With it, we can chart a different course.
It doesn’t have to be this way
The contrast between the Trump administration’s actions and the ICJ opinion is stark, but it’s also instructive. The ICJ opinion shows that a better path is possible. We can choose a future shaped by truth, justice, and scientific integrity—not by fossil fuel spin.
If the US government chooses to retreat, it will not stop the global push for accountability. Around the world, courts, governments, and communities are moving forward with science and justice at the center. Retreat will only isolate the United States and increase its potential liability for inaction. At a moment when the tide is turning toward unity, science, and responsibility, the US risks standing on the wrong side of history.
Now is the time to act.
- The National Academies are seeking submissions of scientific evidence and perspectives by August 27 to inform their fast-track review of greenhouse gas impacts on public health and welfare.
- You can also submit comments on the DOE report by September 2nd (to help you can look at a few things UCS has written about the DOE report, deceptive tactics used by its authors, and ways to identify and counter disinformation).
- The EPA is also accepting comments on the rollback of the Endangerment Finding until September 22nd.
If you’re a scientist, expert, or advocate for climate justice make your voice heard. This is more than one policy or report; it’s about whether the US will uphold its responsibility to protect people and the planet. Let’s choose accountability.