Obama Calls for Climate Progress while House Bill Aims to Slash NASA Climate Study Funds

This week the Obama administration made another call to tackle climate change while congressional Republicans countered with a move to cut NASA funding for climate studies.

Speaking in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said he is planning to use the powers of the executive branch to make proactive moves at curbing pollution and emissions associated with global warming.

"This is the global threat of our time," Obama said in Berlin. "And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work."

Details of Obama's plan are expected to be made public in the coming weeks, however the administration's senior energy and climate advisor Heather Sichal said the plan would boost energy efficiency of appliances and building, plus expand renewable energy programs, according to an Associated Press report.

Yet at the same time President Obama championed the need for progress on climate change, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives made a push Wednesday to slash about $500 million from NASA's climate change research budget.

As reported by Nature, the bill backed by leaders of the House Science Committee would make cuts that one planetary scientist called "alarmingly deep."

While NASA's Earth Sciences division received $1.785 billion in funding this year, the loss of $500 million would still affect NASA's climate research programs.

The bill's sponsors say the move is intended to redirect funding to NASA's Planetary Science division.

"Over the last five years, the Earth science program has grown by over 40 pecent at the expense of other critical missions," Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.) said, according to Nature. "There are 13 agencies within the government that fund over $2.5 billion in climate change research, but only one agency in the government does space exploration."

According to Nature, the bill would block a White House plan to give NASA the responsibility of developing climate satellites for the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System, a new series of climate and weather probes.

The bill, which has not been enacted into law, itself is an "authorization bill" and does not determine how much funding NASA will receive. The Senate is expected introduce its own NASA authorization bill later in the coming months, Nature reported. A copy of the bill can be read here.