White House science office to hold first event on countering climate change denial and delay

Leading climate scientists will meet with officials in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will hold a first-of-its-kind roundtable with some of the nation’s leading scientists on Thursday to discuss the urgent need to combat the climate crisis and to counter arguments for delaying climate action.

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The event, which has not previously been reported, will bring together a diverse group of 17 climate scientists, social scientists, engineers and economists from 11 states and the District of Columbia. Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist who serves as OSTP deputy director for climate and environment and who ran the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during President Barack Obama’s first term, will lead the discussion.

“Clearly, we see tangible evidence of climate change all around us with sea-level rise, increases in extreme heat, increases in drought, wildfires, ocean acidification [and] floods,” Lubchenco said in a phone interview

“What we’re seeing now is a result of past inaction,” she said. “That past inaction is haunting us. And so the question is, how do we accelerate effective action?”

President Biden took office promising to take a whole-of-government approach to curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that are dangerously warming the Earth. But the event is being held as Biden’s massive climate and social spending plan, known as the Build Back Better bill, remains stalled on Capitol Hill.

However, Lubchenco said the discussion would not dwell on the uncertain fate of the spending package, which would be the largest climate and clean energy investment in the nation’s history.

“We don’t plan to focus on specific legislation at this event,” she said. “What we are doing is seeking guidance and knowledge from experts about why there is hesitancy to move ahead with effective action to reduce carbon emissions, to reduce greenhouse gases. And that’s a broader topic than any specific piece of legislation.”

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