Nasa programme to track greenhouse gases cancelled

WASHINGTON: A Nasa programme that cost US$10mil (RM40mil) per year to track carbon and methane, key greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, has been cancelled, a US space agency spokesman said.

The end of the programme – called the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) – which tracked sources and sinks for carbon and made high-resolution models of the planet’s flows of carbon – was first reported by the journal Science.

“Now, President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly killed the CMS,” the report said, describing the move as the latest in a “broad attack on climate science” mounted by the White House.

The journal 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”.

Cole, responding to a request for comment from AFP, said Trump proposed cutting the CMS project and four Earth science missions last year.

After much deliberation, Congress decided they wanted those four space missions to be funded, writing them into the budget Bill they passed in March 2018, he said. But since CMS was not among them, it was cut as proposed, Cole said, describing the entire process as a joint effort by lawmakers and the executive branch.

Existing grants would be allowed to finish but no new research would be supported, he said.

Trump has already announced the US pullout from the 2015 Paris climate accord, a deal signed by more than 190 nations to slash polluting emissions from fossil fuels.