Donald Trump’s administration has removed a quarter of all references to climate change from federal government websites since 2016, researchers have found.

Agencies’ usage of broad environmental terms which “undermine clear analysis” has grown at a similar rate over the same period in a move that has “severely weakened public access” to information, a report warned.

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), which published the research, analysed more than 5,300 pages on the websites of 23 federal agencies.

It found usage of the terms “climate change,” “clean energy,” and “adaptation” had dropped 25 per cent since Mr Trump’s inauguration as president. There were 4,912 mentions of “climate change” on the websites analysed in 2018, compared to 6,552 in 2016.

Over the same period, researchers said, the frequency of “catch-all terms that are employed to undermine clear analysis” increased by 26 per cent. Such terms cited by the report included “energy independence,” “resilience,” and “sustainability”.

Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Show all 25 1 /25 Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Masked Butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus) swimming over a bommie reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed, off the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Rising sea temperatures cause corals to bleach (go white) and die Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A giant clam is seen nestled among coral reefs at the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah AFP/Gett Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reef in seychelles that has degraded After the reef has died they break up and become rubble. On this reef there is some regrowth of young corals so there is hope for recovery Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rabbitfish in a net H Goehlich Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A school of fish and a sea can in a healthy coral reef off the coast of Isla Mujeres, Mexico Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Sky views of great barrier reef in Australia Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A fish swims among coral reefs at the Obhor coast AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving in the Red Sea AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rope nursery Nature Seychelles Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. The rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A parrotfish on the reef C Reveret Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Gorgonian sea fan on a a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver swims during a Great Barrier Reef experience on Lady Elliot Island, Australia Getty/Tourism Queensland Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Jessica Bellsworthy, a PhD student conducting research on the coral reefs of the Gulf of Eilat, holds a coral in an aquarium at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs in the water off the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah in 2008 AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver photographs golden anthias (Pseudanthias aurulentus) on a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage FUNAFUTI, TUVALU - AUGUST 15: From the air the ocean (L) and the logoon (R) and separated by a thin stip of land on August 15, 2018 in Funafuti, Tuvalu. The small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is striving to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels of 5mm per year since 1993, well above the global average, are damaging vital crops and causing flooding in the low lying nation at high tides. Sea water rises through the coral atoll on the mainland of Funafuti and inundates taro plantations, floods either side of the airport runway and affects peoples homes. The nation of 8 inhabited islands with an average elevation of only 2m above sea level is focusing on projects to help it and its people have a future. Four of the outer islands are 97% solar energy dependent and the Tuvalu Government is working to achieve 100% renewable energy from wind and solar by 2025. Tuvalu's 11,000 inhabitants see the effects of climate change in their daily life. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images for Lumix) Fiona Goodall Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A photo taken on April 4, 2019 shows fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. - In dazzling turquoise waters off Egypt's Red Sea coast, scuba divers swim among delicate pink jellyfish and admire coral -- but the rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem. (Photo by Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images) MOHAMED EL-SHAHED AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A damselfish Sarah Frias-Torres Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Divers swim past a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A puffer fish hovering above coral in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving on June 12, 2017 in the Red Sea off Eilat. Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die around the world -- but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea. At the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in southern Israeli resort city Eilat, dozens of aquariums have been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage This photo taken on April 21, 2017 shows an aerial shot of part of mischief reef in the disputed Spratly islands on April 21, 2017. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana flew to a disputed South China Sea island on April 21, brushing off a challenge by the Chinese military while asserting Manila's territorial claim to the strategic region. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE (Photo credit should read TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images) TED ALJIBE AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada AFP/Getty

The report stated: “The website changes we document actively erode the digital ‘bridge’ by which publicly-funded research is contextualized and shared with those in need of information, including the general public and decision-makers in state, local, and tribal governments.

“Rather than cultivating the informational resources necessary to confront climate change, the Trump administration has attempted to remove the topic from federal agency websites, a clear policy indicator in line with withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and revoking the Clean Power Plan.

“While prominent political, journalistic, and scientific entities are sharpening the language they use to describe the climate crisis, we see precisely the opposite from this administration: removal of the term ‘climate change’ and its replacement with less clear language.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly dismissed climate change as a “hoax”, ignoring the scientific consensus and even warnings from his own federal agencies that human-caused global warming is course to have catastrophic consequences.

The president has reversed Obama-era policies aimed at limiting climate change and environmental pollution, and in 2017 announced he would withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, in which signatories pledged to work towards limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

The EDGI analysis found references to climate change had been removed entirely from 136 government pages.

More than half of those pages were on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website. Researchers said in their report: “Such removals are significant given that EPA.gov was the 1,750th most visited website in the U.S. in early 2019, giving it more reach than even WhiteHouse.gov.”

Amendments highlighted in the report include the the EPA recategorising the work of some of its researchers as “ecosystems” instead of “climate science”, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration removing all references to “climate change” on a page about how employers and staff can manage heat-related health risks at work.

In other cases entire resources were simply removed, such as a Department for Transportation’s Climate Change Clearinghouse, which detailed possible impacts on the transportation industry.

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"While our research cannot make definitive conclusions about motivation in all cases, changes to sites may often be the result of direct politicisation – that is, orders from senior administration officials and political appointees," the EDGI researchers wrote.

They pointed to lobbying by right-wing groups such as the Heartland Institute, which denies the existence of climate change and last year wrote to the White House complaining about climate-related government web pages.

The report also suggested there may be "indirect self-censorship occurring" at government agencies, where staff "modify climate change content to 'fly under the radar' of politically-appointed higher-ups.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Independent's request for comment.

In March, the US Geological Survey issued a press release about research that could be useful for infrastructure planning along the California coastline. The release did not mention the main finding of the study, which warned the state's economy was at threat from climate change.