Washington plans to create scientist group to reassess findings on Climate Change: Reports

Washington plans to create an ad hoc group of federal scientists in order to reassess the US government's last year's National Climate Assessment and other landmark federal reports on climate change, namely, to counter conclusions that burning of fossil fuels harms environment, local media reported on Sunday, citing unnamed senior officials.

According to The Washington Post's Sunday report, under the plan, which top administration officials discussed on Friday, the working group will include select scientists who question the gravity of climate change consequences and the extent to which human activities are aggravating the problem.

The group will not be subject to requirements for formal advisory committees, stipulated in the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Under the act, such bodies should meet in public, be subject to public record requests and include a representative membership.

The National Security Council has refused to comment on the matter to the newspaper.

US President Donald Trump has already made multiple attempts to question the findings on climate change. Last November, he said that he did not see that the intensifying global warming was jeopardizing the US economy, while in 2017 he announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims at keeping the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.