Following a lawsuit by environmental and farm organisations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday,  has restored certain climate change-related webpages that it had removed since President Donald Trump took office, according to one of the groups.

The Trump administration claims that the work does not fit with administration priorities; therefore, it has frozen and cancelled part of the cash farmers receive for climate-friendly agriculture. 

Approximately 11 per cent of U.S. emissions come from agriculture.

A USDA official directed staff on January 30 to take down any webpages focused on climate change, which resulted in the removal of material on some loan and funding opportunities, information about investments through the Inflation Reduction Act, and policy documents, according to the lawsuit filed on February 24 by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Working Group.

In a court filing on Monday, 12th April, the USDA said it would restore the deleted pages and finish the restoration procedure in about two weeks.

On Tuesday, the Spokesperson for Earthjustice, the plaintiffs’ legal firm, Nydia Gutierrez,  said that certain pages describing IRA-funded sustainable energy initiatives in rural America had been restored.

Source: Reuters

Image Credit: Arise News