Overview
- The Energy Institute's June 2026 report found that energy-sector carbon emissions rose 1.1% in 2025 to 35,806 million metric tons of CO2, and the United States accounted for about one-third of that increase.
- U.S. coal consumption jumped roughly 10% in 2025, reversing years of decline and making coal the single largest U.S. contributor to the global rise in emissions.
- Renewable power grew strongly, with total renewable generation up 9.1% and solar generation rising about 30%, but this expansion did not fully offset higher fossil-fuel use.
- Electricity demand rose about 3% in 2025, driven by electric vehicles, large data centres and AI workloads, and that demand growth outpaced supply additions and stressed grid operations.
- Higher natural gas prices and regional gas supply patterns concentrated demand in Europe, the Middle East and North America, which may force policy trade-offs between keeping coal plants online for reliability and accelerating grid and storage investments.