Trump cut their climate jobs. This secretive network found them new ones.

A new nonprofit network called Climate Reserve is quietly funding new jobs for climate scientists and researchers who lost federal positions or grants under Trump administration budget cuts. Started after a July workshop in Colorado, the group has already placed more than two dozen laid-off experts at organizations like the Environmental Protection Network and the University of Minnesota, with plans to reach 50 placements by the end of this month and triple its funding by next year.

The group also works to keep useful public tools running after federal support disappears. One example is EJScreen, an online map that shows which communities face the worst pollution; it was cut from the federal budget but has since been revived independently, with a former Biden administration official now hired to keep it updated. Other projects include tracking sea level rise on islands in Panama and measuring greenhouse gas emissions across several African countries.

This story is about the climate research and policy world rather than home upgrades directly, so it does not change any rebate programs or incentives available to homeowners right now. But tools like EJScreen, which maps pollution and environmental risk by neighborhood, are the kind of public resource homeowners sometimes use when researching their area's climate risks or environmental conditions. The bigger story is about how climate science and data work is adapting to lost government funding, work that underpins the kind of research and mapping tools the public relies on.