Trump budget would gut EPA programs tackling climate change and pollution

Proposal would cut Environmental Protection Agency's funding by nearly a third, as budget director calls money spent to combat climate change a 'waste'

Dozens of programs that deal with climate change, pollution clean-ups and energy efficiency would be wiped out by by the Trump administration's budget, which seeks to demolish parts of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The regulator's funding would be cut by nearly a third under Trump's "America first" budget proposal (the name borrows from a phrase denounced by the Anti-Defamation League for its links to 1940s Nazi sympathisers), which requests $5.7bn for the EPA in 2018 - a $2.6bn cut, or 31%, on its existing budget. Around one in five EPA employees would lose their jobs.