The Arctic tundra has shifted from storing carbon in the soil to becoming a carbon dioxide source, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partner researchers concluded in their 19th annual Arctic Report Card.

As a result, the Arctic’s ability to help regulate Earth’s temperature is significantly compromised. Emissions from warming permafrost regions must be thought of as an increasing risk to a planet already being transformed by the overburden of fossil fuel pollution.

“This year’s report paints a clear and urgent picture of the Arctic’s evolving conditions,” said NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad. “We are seeing impacts of warming in real time in the Arctic, and it’s a call to action.”

The final Arctic Report Card of President Joe Biden’s term injects uncertainty into the climate picture at the same time that NOAA and other U.S. science agencies head into an unknown future. President-elect Donald Trump, who does not view climate change as a serious threat, has pledged to slash the size of the federal government. His choice for budget director helped craft a roadmap, known as Project 2025, that describes NOAA as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry” and calls for the agency to be broken up, with most of its climate research ended.