The Trump administration, known for rolling back of regulations combating climate change, is acknowledging the planet will warm to catastrophic levels even as it argues to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued the projection, noting that the Earth's temperature will rise by 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, or about 4 degrees Celsius, a level that would cause catastrophic impacts to the Earth. The projection came as part of an environmental impact statement to justify the agency's recent proposal to relax the fuel efficiency rules, the Washington Post reported Friday .

The agency argued the federal government is helpless to head off the dramatic rise in global temperature, so weakening the fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks would make little impact. Last year, the transportation sector became the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

The Obama administration, seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions from oil to combat climate change, negotiated with automakers and the government in California to reach a deal in 2011 that set fuel efficiency at the 54-mile-per-gallon standard by 2025 for cars and light trucks.

The Trump administration’s plan would freeze the standard at 2020 levels, or 43.7 miles per gallon. In practical terms, the change would reduce real-world fuel economy from about 36 miles per gallon to 30 miles per gallon.

NHTSA, working with the Environmental Protection Agency, argues the Obama standards would not have significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions. They concede weakening the standards would lead to more oil use — causing an additional 500,000 barrels of U.S. oil to be consumed each day — but the agencies claim the impact on emissions of carbon dioxide would be "negligible."

The agencies project that the global temperature would rise by nearly 3.5 degrees Celsius from what it averaged between 1986 and 2005 regardless of whether the tougher Obama-era standards were implemented.

The Trump administration’s recognition of uncontrollable global warming comes as the international community is struggling to meet the overarching goal of the Paris climate agreement, which is to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects of climate change.