Trump quietly axes Nasa’s greenhouse gas monitoring system

Trump’s administration has quietly ended US space agency NASA’s monitoring system into greenhouse gases.

The Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a $10 million per year project which remotely tracks the world’s flow of carbon dioxide, is to lose funding.

Its loss jeopardizes the ability to measure national emission cuts – as agreed to by nations in the Paris climate deal.

NASA spokesman Steve Cole told Science that the agency’s CMS was canceled due to “budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget”.

“It will make cheating easy,” says Matt McGrath, the BBC’s environment correspondent.

“Right now most countries produce annual estimates based on working out how much fuel is used in transport, energy, and industry. These are often wildly inaccurate, making cheating easy. Attempts have been made to develop space and aircraft-based systems and Nasa’s CMS is perhaps the most advanced … The cancellation of the CMS system will be seen [by many nations] as a weakening of the chances of developing a robust and transparent emissions monitoring system – something that many see as critical in building trust for the future of the Paris climate agreement.”

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BBC

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