Environmental Protection Agency website begins to have pages removed, including references to landmark UN climate deal

The new page has a focus on adapting to climate change, rather than addressing the reasons it is happening

American students protest outside the UN climate talks during the COP22 international climate conference in Marrakesh in reaction to Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, on November 9, 2016 (FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

Important parts of the Environmental Protection Agency's website are being quietly scrubbed away.

References to important climate deals and other information on global warming appear to be getting removed from the website. The changes are apparently being ordered by the Trump administration, in line with the new President's belief that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

Notably, mentions of a landmark international climate co-operation agreement – which sees the US work with other countries in the UN to fight climate change – has been removed entirely.

"As a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United States is committed to working with the international community to promote the convention’s key objective: stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system," the removed passage reads, reported Climate Central. "The United States is actively engaging with the international community to find solutions and promote global cooperation on climate change."

Other changes include the removal of references to initiatives begun under Barack Obama, including the Climate Action Plan. Donald Trump has already promised to get rid of that landmark project, which was intended as a comprehensive way for the US to address the challenges of climate change.

Most of the changes appear to be getting rid of anything that mentions or relates to Mr Obama, according to scientists who have been tracing the changes to the website.

The new administration has also removed a mention of carbon pollution as a cause of climate change and tribal assistance programmes have been cut from the site.

Generally, many of the changes remove focus from the reasons for global warming and instead aim to adapt to the changes that are happening to the world.

Some reports had initially suggested that the Trump administration could look to remove the entire EPA website. But it appears to be instead just making smaller alterations to the page and restricting what can be posted on it.