In 2024, the world continued to warm and extreme weather events reached unprecedented levels. Many regions experienced record-breaking heat waves, stronger hurricanes and typhoons, severe flooding, and widespread wildfires.
“Climate change contributed to the deaths of at least 3,700 people and the displacement of millions in 26 weather events,” said a Dec. 2024 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Record-breaking global temperatures in 2024 translated to record-breaking downpours. The last 12 months have been marked by many devastating floods. Hot seas and warmer air fueled more destructive storms, including Hurricane Helene and Typhoon Gaemi.”
Pollution and Policy
Transportation continues to be the largest source of planet-warming emissions. Millions of Americans continue to suffer under the weight of vehicular and industrial pollution. In the United States, passenger cars, trucks, and power plants that use fossil fuels account for much of that pollution.
As part of his ambitious climate agenda, former President Biden promulgated the most significant climate regulations in U.S. history. He rejoined the Paris agreement and was successful in passing the Inflation Reduction Act which heavily invested in clean energy and the reduction of Greenhouse gas emissions. Through bipartisan infrastructure legislation and executive orders, the U.S. strengthened its power grid, promoted clean energy, and reduced fossil fuel production.
President Donald Trump, however, is hostile to green energy and dismissive of the ongoing climate crisis. As a result, the current administration’s 2025 deregulatory agenda for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represents one of the most aggressive policy initiatives ever designed to tear down environmental protections nationwide. Under the Trump administration, the EPA has announced actions targeting climate, public health, and pollution regulations under the guise that these measures will reduce costs, boost energy production, and empower individual states. However, these drastic regulation rollbacks prioritize short-term economic gains against long-term environmental and public health protections. Currently, these moves face fierce legal opposition but, if implemented, they could exacerbate pollution and deepen the already dire climate crisis.
Below is a breakdown of the key components of Trump’s attack on climate regulations:
- A revisitation/cancellation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding which established greenhouse gases as a threat to public health and enabled regulations like vehicle emissions standards. The rationale given is that the finding ignored compliance costs and global contributions to climate change (e.g., China and India’s emissions). If repealed, it would undermine the legal basis for challenges to most federal climate regulations.
- A modification to the clean power plant plan initiated by the Biden administration which was aimed at reducing their carbon emissions. According to the Trump administration, it stifles coal and natural gas industries. This move is supposed to prioritize state-led energy strategies .
- The freezing of fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels and a revocation of California’s waiver allowing that state to set stricter rules. This is meant to benefit the auto industry by reducing compliance costs. Such action will increase transportation emissions at the expense of the environment.
- An alteration to the cost-benefit analysis which was meant to reduce the air toxicity from coal-fired power plants. Although the rule does not change, the justification undermines and weakens future enforcement.
- A roll back of the economic and public health policy rules. Instead of preventing 200,000 deaths by reducing respiratory illnesses, heart disease, and asthma, it could lead to over 20,000 emergency room visits and 89 million days of restricted activity for children.
In addition, as part of its reorganization, the EPA is getting rid of the two offices that are primarily responsible for regulating climate and air pollution by the end of 2025: the Office of Atmospheric Protection (OAP) and Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. This signals a likely end to much of the agency’s vital climate protection work.
Impacts of the Cuts
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he is likely to move programs to curb smog, soot, and toxic emissions into other offices. This could discard most of the OAP’s work including a program that requires the country’s biggest polluters to report their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Trump administration also recently announced the elimination of the Office of Research and Development which was a centralized arm for research and science that employed over 1,500 people (Stephen Lee, “EPA Weighs Axing Research Office Key to Agency Rulemaking,” March 18, 2025, Bloomberg Law). The EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting program is probably on the chopping block too, though oil and gas operations may still have to report their emissions for the time being. Congress mandated that reporting and created a methane management program in the 2022 climate law. Republican lawmakers could pull that back later this year in a budget reconciliation package.
It is also likely that the EPA’s annual greenhouse gas inventory may be eliminated as it is not mandated by statute. A host of other domestic and international programs and partnerships designed to measure, track, or reduce climate-forcing emissions, which mostly grew up through a series of executive and agency actions, may likewise be eliminated.
According to Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, the loss of reliable federal data about greenhouse gas emissions would undermine climate action by states, local governments, and the private sector. “This kind of information is vital for us to understand where the heat-trapping emissions are coming from and how that’s changing over time,” she said. “There’s no reason to get rid of it, except to try to bury the evidence.”
The current administration has also terminated EPA’s environmental justice offices including those addressing pollution in marginalized communities. This action will be disproportionately detrimental to low-income and minority populations.
While the administration claims deregulation will save trillions in hidden taxes, this claim is contradicted by the EPA’s own data which shows that climate regulations, if they are implemented as designed, could deliver $254 billion annually in health care savings versus $40 billion in costs coming from compliance with Trump administration cuts.
Auto and fossil fuel industries will likely largely support the rollbacks, citing reduced regulatory burdens and cost reduction. However, some Republicans and businesses are expressing concerns about legal chaos and market instability that could result if Trump’s cuts are taken to their fullest extent.
Hope for a More Just Future for the Climate
But the Trump cuts are not yet the law of the land. This is because repealing government regulations requires compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act including a public comment period and scientific justification. For example, revising the endangerment finding would demand new scientific assessments as well as input from reconstituted advisory boards.
Former EPA administrators such as Gina McCarthy vow to bring lawsuits to block these harmful cuts. Courts previously vacated Trump-era rules like the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, signaling skepticism toward deregulatory overreach.
Muslims following these developments should remember that Islam has obligated us to take care of the earth. The Quran and Hadith have many references to this responsibility that serve as daily reminders. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), through the Green Initiative Team, has been actively working towards promoting conservation and sustainability since 2014. It made history in 2016 as the first Islamic organization to commit to fossil fuel divestment. Through our efforts, the Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa in 2019 declaring fossil fuel divestment as a moral and religious obligation.
The ISNA Green Initiative Team will continue to promote the importance of environmental sustainability and warn of the threats of climate change. We request your support and participation to make the world a better place to live.
