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This week ends with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration stopping the participation of the country's scientists in key U.N. climate change assessments, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
The move is part of the United States' broader withdrawal from climate change mitigation efforts and multilateral cooperation.
The stop-work order affects staff members of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who engage with a key working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It means the United States will not attend a major IPCC plenary meeting in Hangzhou, China, next week, to plan the seventh global climate assessment, said one of the sources.
"The power of the IPCC is that governments, businesses and global institutions can operate with shared conclusions. The U.S. being completely removed from that process is concerning," said Delta Merner of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The White House declined to comment and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Staying with developments in the United States, oil and biofuel groups in the country banded together to urge the Trump administration to increase volumes of renewable fuels that must be blended into the nation's fuel mix in 2026 and beyond, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The move is unusual because the oil and biofuels industries are frequently at odds with each other on issues related to the Renewable Fuel Standard program.
Both industries' interests, however, align in opposition to electric vehicles, which pose a threat to any form of liquid fuel.
"While our organizations have not always agreed on every detail, we have joined together in recognition of the critical role liquid fuels serve in the American economy, to advance liquid fuels, and ensure consumers have a choice of how they fuel their vehicles," the groups said in a letter to Lee Zeldin, the new administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
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