Washington: The White House has "quietly killed" a $10-million per year NASA program that tracks carbon and methane, key greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, the journal Science said Thursday.
NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) tracked sources and sinks for carbon and made high-resolution models of the planet's flows of carbon, said the report.
"Now, President Donald Trump's administration has quietly killed the CMS," it said, describing the move as the latest in a "broad attack on climate science," mounted by the White House.
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The journal Science said NASA "declined to provide a reason for the cancellation beyond 'budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget.'"
It also quoted US space agency spokesman Steve Cole as saying there was no mention of the CMS in a budget deal signed in March, which "allowed the administration's move to take effect."
Existing grants would be allowed to finish but no new research would be supported, the report said.
According to Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of Tufts University's Center for International Environment and Resource Policy in Medford, Massachusetts, the CMS cuts jeopardize efforts to verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate deal.
"If you cannot measure emissions reductions, you cannot be confident that countries are adhering to the agreement," she told the magazine.
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