Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States rose by 2.4% in 2025 compared with the previous year, marking a reversal of the country's recent downward trend, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.
The increase was driven by a combination of a cold winter, surging electricity demand from datacenters and cryptocurrency mining, and higher natural gas prices, the researchers said. They added that environmental policy rollbacks by Donald Trump's administration were not significant factors in the increase because they had not been in place long enough to have a measurable effect.
The US released an estimated 5.9bn tons (5.35bn metric tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, some 139m tons (126m metric tons) more than in 2024. Coal power, which had previously shrunk by nearly two-thirds since its peak in 2007, rose by 13% as higher natural gas prices made coal more competitive. Ben King, a director at Rhodium and co-author of the study, cautioned that this did not signal a major comeback for coal.
Despite the overall rise, solar power generation jumped by 34%, overtaking hydroelectric power, with zero-carbon energy sources now supplying 42% of US electricity. King noted that the economic case for renewables remained strong, even as the administration moves to end subsidies for solar and wind.
Other experts expressed concern. Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the environment school at the University of Michigan, called the increase "a harbinger of what's to come," while longtime climate activist Bill McKibben said it was "incredibly stupid that the US is going backwards on this stuff."
