Budget cuts to key US climate programs proposed by President Donald Trump are "frightening" for the global science community, threatening to set back recent advances, a leading international researcher says.



Valerie Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group, said the planned cuts were "a major worry" given America's outsized contribution to the global research.

"I cannot hide the huge anxieties about the strength of research capacities in the US in the coming years," Dr Masson-Delmotte said.

Geosciences, including climate research, face cuts of as much as 40 per cent, including the scrapping for four climate-related satellites. "It's a major worry given the weight of the US scientific communities" in this field, she said.

US work includes as much as 30 per cent of ocean climate research, and running core data centres used by international researchers. Such cuts, if applied, would be difficult for US universities - or other nations - to fill.