A Year of Resistance and Resilience for Climate and Environmental Data and Tools

In anticipation of a second Trump administration, the Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) formed in November 2024 to start protecting our climate and environmental data infrastructure. When Trump took office in January 2025, we had been preparing for several months, archiving hundreds of datasets, and republishing key environmental justice tools within days of their ordered removal based on a flurry of Executive Orders (EOs) to cripple our ability to understand and respond to our changing climate. These EOs instructed federal agencies to remove, modify, or obstruct access to information about the environment, environmental justice, and climate change, as well as cut funding to clean energy initiatives and promote the use of fossil fuels.

When the orders to remove data from public access came, PEDP utilized our network of federal staff, researchers, academics, and technologists to identify and prioritize the information most at risk, and we soon started archiving as much information as possible through individual and collective efforts. We developed metadata standards to make it easier to find and reuse the data for a variety of purposes. Using this work as a foundation, and through collaboration with groups undertaking similar efforts in different domains, PEDP created intentional spaces to have open discussions about the future of our data infrastructure and imagine a world with more robust, valuable, and reliable data networks. 

Hundreds of Datasets Saved

With an initial focus on environmental, climate, and health data, and based on tips from federal staff and people familiar with the data, PEDP archived hundreds of datasets previously made available by agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We held dozens of dathathons in partnership with academic institutions to engage the public in these archiving efforts. 

Moving forward, we intend to update our website to improve the discovery and accessibility of the data archive, connect with people who are using the data to better understand their needs and use cases, and continue to advocate for more more resilient data infrastructure in the future. We imagine a world where data is housed in structures that are federated and collaborative, not centralized. We want systems to be built for sharing and interoperability from the start using FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Resilient) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsible, and Ethical) data principals.

Environmental Justice Tools Rebuilt

When the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) was taken offline, PEDP put it back up within a few days. This tool was used by the federal government to identify communities that are overburden by pollution and underserved by investment. We also put back online the Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping tool (EJScreen) and the Environmental Justice Analysis Multisite tool (EJAM), which were created by the EPA to help people access information about their environments, engage in outreach and advocacy, and highlight areas in need of remediation. By re-enabling access to these resources, we are able to restore support to universities who were using the tools as part of their curriculum, enable researchers and policy makers to continue to advocate for environmental justice, and pinpoint where climate hazards pose the greatest threats.

Responding to Staffing Purges at Federal Agencies

With more than 300,000 estimated job cuts to the federal government, PEDP worked tirelessly to map the cuts, track their impacts, and support the civil servants who worked in research and development, environmental justice and civil rights, and diversity and inclusion. Several former staff members from the agencies like the EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) are now members of PEDP, where their expertise is being utilized to prioritize data archival and guide tool development. Working with the Aspen Global Change Institute, we were also able to bring a fellow from their inaugural SHIP (Strengthening Human Infrastructure Project) program inhouse at one of our member nonprofits to provide strategic leadership and help to fill gaps left by the reductions in the federal workforce.

Tracking Cuts to Federal Grants

When the administration cut or put on hold grants made through investments by the previous administration in communities that face environmental, climate, and socioeconomic injustices, we worked to create interactive maps to visualize and defend the investments. We partnered with legal organizations to develop strategies to protect the investments, and advocated for the need for data that recognizes people’s lived experiences. These billions of dollars of frozen funds left nonprofits, local governments, and community organizations scrambling to fund projects after years of planning. PEDP’s maps helped people understand impacts by project types and the economic repercussions such as job loss and political distribution. 

Organizing Against Policy Changes

PEDP helped organize pushback to sweeping policy changes meant to undermine the environmental and public health protections that we all benefited from. From withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, to rescinding the Endangerment Finding that provided protections from the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, to recent steps to no longer assign monetary value to climate change’s cost to human life, this administration has shown its intention to abandon public health protections. At each action, PEDP has submitted public comments, drafted and signed on to open letters to Congress in support of our vital research institutions, and organized Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIAs) to demand access to information held by the U.S. government.

Advocacy and Legal Strategies

The removal of critical datasets and tools puts already vulnerable communities at even greater risk from environmental burdens and climate related disasters. People rely on these systems to understand and protect their health and to build future resilience. Moving forward, PEDP will be working to better understand what legal actions can mitigate these harms, using models from previous litigation in the public health space. We are developing test cases for environmental data loss litigation and exploring the risk of harms created when environmental data is removed from public access. Working with community partners, academics, and professionals, PEDP is developing models for data resources to ensure that the data can be used in court.

What We Are Tracking Next

Up next for PEDP are some exciting opportunities to connect and collaborate with communities to reimagine the future of the environmental justice tools formerly managed by the federal government. We hope that community led, participatory processes can demonstrate what is possible, make the tools more broadly useful and accessible, and help more people become aware of the importance of understanding our shared environmental and climate burdens. This awareness can help people become engaged, take action, and advocate for a better future for ourselves, our communities, and our climate.

Call to Action

If you’d like to support our work you can get involved, donate to support our efforts, use our tools and share your feedback, or share our story with your networks.