Senior US scientist says Trump withdrawal from research bodies will deter knowledge of global problems

A senior US researcher has said the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from international research programmes was an attempt to eliminate understanding of global problems like climate change.

Ed Carr, Centre Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute in the United States, an international non-profit research institute for environment and sustainable development challenges, said in an interview with News Tank Transitions on 13/01/2026: "When you are trying to remove funding for science... you are reducing our understanding of the world around us and that makes it impossible to have evidence-based policies."

Carr was reacting to an announcement by President Trump on 07/01/2026 that the US was withdrawing from 66 international organisations, a significant number of which cover research and educational activities.

"There is no question that it is more difficult today to fund research on climate change and biodiversity loss than it was a year ago. It will impact the work that gets done, but the idea that it will simply remove all US expertise from these areas is not going…