WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will no longer sponsor an awards program honoring voluntary corporate actions to combat global warming, it announced on Friday, the agency’s latest move to undo Obama-era climate change programs.

FILE PHOTO: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks during an interview for Reuters at his office in Washington, U.S., July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Since 2012, the EPA has been the lead sponsor of the Climate Leadership Awards program and conference, which recognizes companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their internal operations and supply chains.

In an email sent on Friday, the EPA announced it will no longer be involved in the awards or the conference.

Under Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has repeatedly expressed doubts about climate change, the EPA has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era climate regulations in what it says is an effort to ease the regulatory burden on energy and agriculture companies.

In the Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2018, the EPA was the target of the largest cut - 31 percent - a figure that Republican and Democratic lawmakers opposed.

In Friday’s email, the EPA did not explain why it is eliminating the awards program, but apologized for the inconvenience of its announcement in the middle of the award application process. The awards were to be given out in Denver between Feb. 28 and March 2, 2018.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we don’t plan to fund an awards ceremony on climate change,” said Jahan Wilcox, EPA spokesman.

The agency spent $24,950 per year on sponsorship, plus travel and staff time for those managing the awards.

NGO co-sponsors of the awards program and conference - C2ES and the Climate Registry - said on Friday they will continue to fund the awards and conference and are eager to work with new partners to host the program.

The program has honored more than 115 companies and individuals since 2012, including Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Boeing Co (BA.N) and Mack Trucks (VOLVb.ST), as well as institutions like the University of California at Irvine.</s>The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its sponsorship of a climate change awards program co-sponsored by two environmental organizations.

“The Agency has decided to discontinue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) involvement with the 2018 Climate Leadership Awards program,” the EPA said on its website.

“This includes canceling the 2018 Climate Leadership Awards as well as EPA’s sponsorship of the Climate Leadership Conference.”

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The awards program recognizes organizations and individuals that take steps to address climate change. It also awards organizations that publicly report their greenhouse gas production levels and reduction efforts.

Winners in 2017, which were announced at the Climate Leadership Conference in March, include Goldman Sachs, IBM and Lockheed Martin Corp., as well as a California assemblyman, the climate policy director for Atlanta and a sustainability officer for JetBlue Airways.

Organizers of the leadership awards and the climate conference said there were “disappointed” by the agency’s decision, but that the awards program and conference will move forward without the EPA.

“We believe it’s more important than ever to encourage and recognize climate action by businesses, organizations, local governments and individuals to reduce the man-made emissions that are causing our climate to change,” said Ann McCabe, executive director of the Climate Registry, and Bob Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, in a statement.

“We’re eager for opportunities to build new partnerships to ensure the 2018 Climate Leadership Conference and Awards are better than ever.”</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will no longer sponsor an awards program honoring voluntary corporate actions to combat global warming, it announced on Friday, the agency’s latest move to undo Obama-era climate change programs.</s>Under Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has repeatedly expressed doubts about climate change, the EPA has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era climate regulations in what it says is an effort to ease the regulatory burden on energy and agriculture companies.

[WASHINGTON] The US Environmental Protection Agency will no longer sponsor an awards program honouring voluntary corporate actions to combat global warming, it announced on Friday, the agency's latest move to undo Obama-era climate change programs.

Since 2012, the EPA has been the lead sponsor of the Climate Leadership Awards program and conference, which recognises companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their internal operations and supply chains.

In an email sent on Friday, the EPA announced it will no longer be involved in the awards or the conference.

Under Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has repeatedly expressed doubts about climate change, the EPA has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era climate regulations in what it says is an effort to ease the regulatory burden on energy and agriculture companies.

In the Trump administration's budget proposal for 2018, the EPA was the target of the largest cut - 31 per cent - a figure that Republican and Democratic lawmakers opposed.

In Friday's email, the EPA did not explain why it is eliminating the awards program, but apologised for the inconvenience of its announcement in the middle of the award application process. The awards were to be given out in Denver between Feb 28 and March 2, 2018.

"It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that we don't plan to fund an awards ceremony on climate change," said Jahan Wilcox, EPA spokesman.

The agency spent US$24,950 per year on sponsorship, plus travel and staff time for those managing the awards.

NGO co-sponsors of the awards program and conference - C2ES and the Climate Registry - said on Friday they will continue to fund the awards and conference and are eager to work with new partners to host the program.

The program has honoured more than 115 companies and individuals since 2012, including Microsoft Corp, Boeing Co and Mack Trucks, as well as institutions like the University of California at Irvine.</s>EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox apologized but didn't explain why the EPA withdrew its support. As he told Reuters in an email "It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that [the EPA doesn't] plan to fund an awards ceremony on climate change." To start with, the administration's proposed budget for 2018 will see its funding cut by 31 percent, which will specifically affect its climate change and pollution initiatives. Even without the budget cut, though, it's hard to imagine the EPA supporting a climate change award in its current state.

Earlier this year, the agency pulled down its climate science pages to reflect the views of the White House. The president also signed an executive order rolling back climate policies approved by the previous administration. And let's not forget that the United States withdrew from the Paris Accord, an agreement between 142 countries to make an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While the awards program for 2018 was canceled, the EPA's former co-sponsors, non-government organizations C2ES and the Climate Registry, intend to continue the tradition. They're now looking for a new co-sponsor willing to fund and host the program in the future.</s>Donald Trump has done many things to tarnish America’s reputation, but his decision to walk away from the Paris Agreement is probably the most internationally symbolic and damaging. That a US president can put climate change denial at the centre of his climate and energy policy is truly unprecedented, and it is difficult to remember an administration that has been so intent on undermining the intellectual and scientific findings on global warming.

Fighting back against Trump’s climate folly seems to be an uphill task. Even the impending publication of the Climate Science Special Report, drafted by scientists from 13 federal agencies, is unlikely to do much. The final report is expected to warn of the dangers of climate change, but it will most likely be surreptitiously sidelined.

One of the reasons behind Trump’s bullish attitude might be to do with public opinion in the US. In a poll carried out by Yale University in 2016, 70% of Americans said they believed in global warming and 58% believed that it will harm Americans. However, only 40% believe that it will actually impact them individually. Furthermore, just 24% said they heard about global warming in the media every week.

In a poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre this year, 76% said terrorism should be a top priority for the administration. Only 38% mentioned global warming. The polls suggest that Americans might be concerned about global warming and want more to be done about it. But they are more likely to be worried about, say, Kim Jong-un than climate change.

It appears that confronting Trump – or any other climate denier – on the basis of facts simply won’t work. The challenge should perhaps be to first rally public opinion until there is an overwhelming consensus that serious and urgent action is needed.

One practical short-term solution might be to shift the public discourse from “climate change” to “pollution”. Focusing on pollution has three advantages that may mean it moves public opinion better than global warming.

First, pollution is tangible. The fact that glaciers are melting might be alarming but it is not something that most of us experience in everyday life. And why would a rise in temperature matter as much to someone living in Sacramento, California, where it is already hot and where one can find shelter in air conditioned buildings?

Pollution, however, can be experienced on a daily basis and causes nuisances of all sorts. The same Sacramento resident who is indifferent to global warming might be concerned with the pollution in their local urban river parkway, for instance. In addition, reports claiming that there are millions of annual deaths from air pollution have a different, more personal ring from those making the more abstract claim that “global temperatures” are rising fast.

Americans also seem to be more concerned about the environment than global warming. In the same opinion poll carried out by Pew, 55% of Americans saw “the environment” as a priority, a similar score to crime or poverty (and comfortably ahead of the military, immigration or “global warming”). They seem to be more worried about the quality of air and water where they live rather than losing sleep over a global climate phenomenon.

What might also be encouraging is a poll carried out by the Center for American Progress this year which showed around two-thirds of those who voted for Trump opposed the idea of privatising or selling off America’s national forests and public lands. Whether this is a strong enough basis for there to be a rallying of the public is difficult to know. Nevertheless, focusing on the local environment is a good start.

A focus on pollution might also actually open up the debate on the environment and encourage some kind of grassroot reaction.

Too often the discourse on the environment and global warming has been dominated by scientific experts and politicians. As such, the public might believe that this is a matter of scientific debate that somehow they cannot participate in, without some prior knowledge. After all, what can you, personally, contribute to a debate on carbon dioxide parts-per-million, or melting glaciers? Would you even know either was a problem if scientists hadn’t warned us?

By contrast, feeling the effects of environmental pollution does not require expert knowledge. The public can express remedial actions and suggestions, without having to pretend that they understand atmospheric science. Moreover, actions are more likely to be taken on a local level if the focus is on local pollution.

The public should be scientists’ first ally in this battle. Any language and issues that engage people against Trump’s climate folly in whatever way should be the priority for scientists and policy makers seeking to address the problem.

Tae Hoon Kim is a researcher in Energy Politics at the University of Cambridge.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announces, effective in 2019, it will no longer sponsor the Climate Leadership Awards program that honors voluntary corporate actions to combat global warming.