Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims

Carbon Brief | August 13, 2025
By Ayesha Tandon,  Leo Hickman,  Cecilia Keating and Robert McSweeney

A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.

The 140-page report – “A critical review of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the US climate” – was published by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on 23 July, just days before the government laid out plans to revoke a scientific finding used as the legal basis for emissions regulation.

The executive summary of the controversial report inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed”.

It also states misleadingly that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”.

Pages highlighted red contain false statements, whilst pages highlighted orange contain misleading statements. Pages can contain more than one false or misleading statement. Pages that remain uncoloured represent parts of the report that either have been stated as accurate by the cited author, or have not received any comment from invited experts. Front pages, reference and glossary pages omitted.