The Trump administration intends to dismantle one of the world's leading climate research institutions over what it said on Tuesday were concerns about "climate alarmism," despite opposition to the plan.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), established in 1960 as a federally funded research and education hub in Boulder, Colorado, will be broken up, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said on social media.

Any of its operations deemed "vital," such as weather research, will be moved "to another entity or location," he said.

"This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country," Vought said.

The plan was first reported by USA Today. It said moves to dismantle NCAR will begin immediately.

Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished NCAR scholar, told The Washington Post breaking up the laboratory would result in a major loss of scientific research.

Trenberth, an honorary academic in physics at New Zealand's University of Auckland, said the center was crucial to the search for advanced climate science discoveries.

Antonio Busalacchi, the president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which oversees NCAR, told the Post that, "Any plans to dismantle NSF NCAR would set back our nation's ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters."

The White House noted that NCAR's budget more than doubled from the 1980s to the 1990s and called it "the premier research stronghold for left-wing climate lunacy," pointing to examples of its research on wind turbines and air pollution.

Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement on Tuesday that he hadn't been briefed on the plans by White House officials, but said, "If true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked." 

He said part of the NCAR's work provides data on severe weather events "that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families."

"If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery," Polis said.

President Trump has sought in his second term in office to roll back clean energy and climate initiatives established under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

Mr. Trump has referred to climate change as a "con job" and, in a speech to the United Nations in September, called it the "biggest hoax ever perpetrated" against the world.