{"id":1561,"date":"2026-01-22T13:39:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anticybersquatting.info\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/u-s-emissions-rose-2-4-in-2025-while-china-and-india-hit-historic-coal-milestones\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:39:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:39:47","slug":"u-s-emissions-rose-2-4-in-2025-while-china-and-india-hit-historic-coal-milestones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anticybersquatting.info\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/u-s-emissions-rose-2-4-in-2025-while-china-and-india-hit-historic-coal-milestones\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Emissions Rose 2.4% in 2025 While China and India Hit Historic Coal Milestones"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2025, the United States reversed its progress on emissions reductions. Meanwhile, China and India, the two largest developing economies, both saw coal power generation drop for the first time in over 50 years. That\u2019s the bad news and good news that point to a challenging future.<\/p>\n

The Rhodium Group\u2019s preliminary 2025 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions analysis<\/a> reports that after two years of declining emissions, the U.S. produced 2.4% more planet-warming CO2 pollution last year. More concerning was that emissions grew faster than the economy, which expanded just 1.9%, reversing three years of successfully decoupling economic growth from carbon output.<\/p>\n

Electric utilities were responsible for the majority of the increase. Surging electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations drove overall consumption higher. They burned 13% more coal to keep up, their emissions rising 3.8% compared to 2024. That\u2019s only the second time in the past decade that coal generation has grown. High natural gas prices, which rose by 58% at Henry Hub, an important gas distribution facility, made coal economically competitive again.<\/p>\n

Emissions from U.S. buildings increased by 6.8% due to colder winter weather. Transportation emissions remained about the same despite record travel, thanks to more people buying hybrid and electric cars, which accounted for nearly 22% of passenger car sales as of November 2025.<\/p>\n

The Policy Shadow Over America’s Future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Trump administration policies did not affect 2025 emissions, Rhodium expects the consequences of its hostility toward renewable energy to become evident soon.<\/p>\n

According to Rhodium\u2019s Taking Stock 2025 report<\/a>, by 2035, U.S. emissions are expected to fall only 26-35% below 2005 levels, far below last year\u2019s forecast of up to 56% reductions. That\u2019s the Trump Effect at work, and in the firm\u2019s worst-case scenario, the pace of emissions reductions could fall to just 0.4% per year, down by two-thirds from the U.S. historical progress. The key reasons for the change include Congress\u2019s budget bill, which changed clean energy tax credits, and the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of climate rules, including the repeal of methane standards for oil and gas.<\/p>\n

BloombergNEF estimates that<\/a> new wind, solar, and energy storage projects will decline by 23% through 2030 compared to earlier forecasts. Onshore wind has been hit hardest, with a 50% cut in expected growth. New Treasury rules also added more hurdles for clean energy project developers.<\/p>\n

Despite these attacks on the technology, clean energy remained strong last year. Solar power grew by 34%, its fastest rate since 2017, and now 42% of the U.S. electric grid is carbon-free. According to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Q4 2025 report<\/a> from SEIA and Wood Mackenzie, solar and storage accounted for 85% of new power added to the grid in the first nine months of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Asia\u2019s Historic Coal Turning Point<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Asia, the situation was different. Carbon Brief reports<\/a> that coal power generation dropped in both China and India in 2025, the first time this has happened since 1973. China\u2019s coal output fell by 1.6% and India\u2019s dropped by 3%. The change will result in measurable climate progress. China and India were responsible for over 90% of the increased global carbon emissions between 2015 and 2024.<\/p>\n

China delivered progress despite its electricity demand growing by 5%. The country added record levels of renewable energy; over 500 gigawatts of solar and wind are expected in the final tally for 2025. Carbon Brief<\/a> also reported that China\u2019s CO2 emissions have stayed flat or dropped since March 2024. More electric vehicles cut transport emissions by 5% year over year, and emissions from cement and steel fell as Chinese real estate construction slowed.<\/p>\n

India increased its clean energy capacity by 44% year over year, adding 35 gigawatts of solar, 6 gigawatts of wind, and 3.5 gigawatts of hydropower in the first 11 months of 2025. For the first time, clean energy growth was a major driver of the drop in India\u2019s coal power, accounting for 44% of the reduction, with milder weather and slower demand growth also helping.<\/p>\n

Even though their coal emissions are down, China and India continue to build new coal plants. Carbon Brief <\/a>reports that the two countries added 87% of the new coal power capacity added worldwide in the first half of 2025. China proposed 74.7 gigawatts of new coal, India 12.8 gigawatts, and the rest of the world only about 11 gigawatts combined. Many new coal facilities are meant to serve as backup or \u201cpeaker\u201d plants, running only during periods of high demand.<\/p>\n

Global Emissions Hit Record High<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Global Carbon Project\u2019s 2025 Global Carbon Budget<\/a> put these trends in perspective: global fossil fuel CO2 emissions rose by 1.1% to a record 38.1 billion tons. The United States contributed about 40% of the global increase, more than the EU, China, and India combined.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s emissions in 2025 are expected to rise by only 0.4%, slower than in recent years due to its aggressive investments in renewable energy. India\u2019s emissions growth also slowed to 1.4%, helped by an early monsoon that reduced cooling needs and more renewables that limited coal use.<\/p>\n

What This Means for Climate Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

These different trends have big consequences. Rhodium points out that cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s data collection and reporting on greenhouse gases mean the U.S. is \u201cheading into murkier waters\u201d when it comes to tracking emissions from the world\u2019s second-largest emitter.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the world\u2019s remaining carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5\u00b0C is only 170 billion tons of CO2, which is about four years at today\u2019s emission rates. The year 2025 was also the second- or third-hottest on record.<\/p>\n

If China\u2019s emissions stay flat, the country may have already peaked years before its 2030 goal. India\u2019s power sector emissions dropped 1% in the first half of 2025, only the second time this has happened in nearly 50 years. These changes show that large-scale clean energy can cut emissions even as economies grow.<\/p>\n

The difference is clear: while Asia\u2019s biggest economies show that strong renewable energy growth can lower emissions, U.S. policy changes are expected to add 0.8 to 1.2 gigatonnes to emissions by 2035 compared to earlier forecasts. The question is whether global clean energy progress can make up for the U.S. moving backward.<\/p>\n

The post U.S. Emissions Rose 2.4% in 2025 While China and India Hit Historic Coal Milestones<\/a> appeared first on Earth911<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2025, the United States reversed its progress on emissions reductions. Meanwhile, China and India,…
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