Washington DC - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is concerned after they were instructed by the Trump administration to provide a list of all grants related to climate change.

The NOAA was on Thursday issued with a Commerce Department directive to identify programs and grants related to climate change and clean energy, amongst other things.

Staff members were asked to search their databases looking for the terms "climate science," "climate crisis," "clean energy," "environmental quality," and "pollution.

They are then to compile a list and provide it to the Trump administration.

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The request was confirmed in documents obtained by the New York Times, raising fears that the grants would be canceled.

The NOAA and its sub-agency, the National Weather Service, are among the world's most important climate agencies, providing a huge amount of data to researchers at some of the globe's best universities.

As a result, the cancellation of grants, as well as the roll-back of the NOAA as a whole, could have a devastating impact on the funding of scientific research into climate change both inside and outside the US.

President Donald Trump's executive orders serve as a backdrop for the request and are the basis for the Department of Commerce's selection of keywords as he seeks to cut large swathes of the civil service.

Under Project 2025, the NOAA has been identified as "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry." According to the plan, it should be dismantled, and the National Weather Service should be privatized.

While it hasn't been made clear what will happen next, similar requests since Trump came to office in January – particularly those around diversity, equity, and inclusion policies – have seen mass layoffs.

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USAID is also facing a massive rolling back of its services and staff, as Trump looks to roll it into the State Department. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who's responsible for many of these cuts, may also be involved at the NOAA.

"Elon Musk's reported targeting of the climate-related work at NOAA is another example of anti-science ideology run amok," Democratic Senator Van Hollen said in a statement cited by the New York Times.

"It is also a payoff to the big oil companies and climate change deniers who are cheering on Trump and Musk."