Yahoo News Explains: How Trump has hindered climate change policies

The White House just released a harrowing report on the potentially deadly consequences of climate change.

The 1,656-page evaluation is required by Congress and is the most extensive scientific study to date.

The report noted some of the extreme side effects of climate change: “More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.”

Why does President Trump contradict the report?

In the past, Trump has frequently called climate change a hoax and in 2017, he pulled the U.S. out of an environmental action accord signed by 195 nations to help stop climate change.

But more recently, he’s threatened to cut spending. “We will also cancel billions of dollars in climate change payments to the United Nations,” he said at a rally, “and we will use that money to help rebuild America’s infrastructure.”

Under Trump’s direction, the Environmental Protection Agency has sharply stunted two major efforts to fight climate change. Both policies were designed to help limit the number of greenhouse emissions entering the air.

Although the report was conducted by more than a dozen federal agencies, President Trump is unlikely to change his course.

Democrats are expected to use their newfound House power to check Trump’s stance on the issue.

Nancy Pelosi, who’s currently vying to be speaker of the House, said she plans on reviving a special congressional panel to examine climate change.

But regardless of future policies, it’s clear that the vast climate change report has created a storm of its own in the political sphere.