E&E News reports that “China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell 2.7 percent in the first half of 2025 while U.S. emissions increased 4.2 percent.” This reverses these countries’ long-standing emissions trends, but it’s too soon to know if this is a persistent change as a variety of weather and economic factors can influence emissions during any particular period. However, it’s important to note that China’s coal consumption fell 2.6% during this period while solar power grew by 45% (China installed 92 GW of solar just in the month of May!). By comparison, total U.S. solar capacity is less than 150 GW. Carbon Brief notes that the drop in China’s carbon emissions in 2025 continues a trend that started in March 2024.

Just as expected with rising carbon emissions, Inside Climate News reports that 2024 surpassed 2023 as the hottest year on record, according to the American Meteorological Society. Particularly notable is an increase in methane emissions, which molecule-for-molecule provides more intense warming than carbon dioxide. While some of these methane emissions likely have fossil-fuel sources, much of it is from microbial sources stimulated by the warmer climate. The article reviews the myriad of impacts that are occurring around the globe.

Temperatures remain high in 2025, particularly in the Arctic. Grist reports from Svalbard, Norway, where “air temperatures climbed above freezing for 14 of the 28 days of February, reaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit, when the average temperature at this time of year is 5 degrees.” Loss of reflective ice and more cloud cover as evaporation increases are feedback loops driving temperatures higher. Melting permafrost, which also accelerates climate change as increased bacterial decay produces more greenhouse gases, was also evident. Scientists who came to Svalbard ready to drill in frozen soil for samples could instead collect melting soil with a spoon. The Guardian reports on a recent study which concluded that large portions of the Arctic have now become a source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as decay accelerates in the warming climate.

Reuters reports that in the U.S. “combined installations of solar, wind and battery storage systems are on track to climb by around 7% in 2025,” which would be a slowdown from 2024. “Solar power capacity has been the fastest-growing form of clean power generation over the past five years, with national capacity expanding by 181% since 2020.” The 1.8% expansion in total U.S. wind capacity so far this year represents the smallest annual increase since at least 2010. Growth in battery storage systems is stronger than solar or wind power, with installed capacity for battery storage already up 22% from 2024. Globally, renewable energy investment is up over 10% in 2025 despite the slowdown in the U.S.

Danger Season continues unabated. The Guardian reports on cloudbursts during heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across northern Pakistan, causing over 850 deaths and forcing the evacuation of over one million people. Reuters explains the origin of these cloudbursts, and how climate change is making them more intense. Reuters also describes the record-breaking wildfires in Spain (to which the European Union firefighting force has been called in), and the drought that is hitting Syria, Turkey and parts of Serbia. The BBC reports on unprecedented wildfires in France and the hottest summer ever in the U.K. Major floods have struck Japan, Mexico City and Kashmir.

Hurricane Erin “became the 11th Category 5 storm in the Atlantic basin since 2016.” The Washington Post notes that, “over the longer term, there have been only 33 seasons with Category 5s since 1924, or about one-third of all years.” Clearly, the number of major storms is on the rise, as predicted by climate science. A Union of Concerned Scientists blog post explains the rapid intensification of Hurricane Erin, and how absurd the Trump Administration’s anti-science actions are in the face of this reality.

Inside Climate News notes that “the U.S. Department of Energy ordered Michigan’s Campbell coal plant to stay open, despite plans to shut it down after more than 60 years of operation. A week later, DOE ordered the Eddystone oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania to do the same. The reason, according to the Trump administration, was an inadequate energy supply — a claim that is disputed by a wide array of experts.” Canary Media describes opposition from states’ Attorneys General, environmental groups and even industry trade associations. The trade groups argue that the DOE’s analysis ​“fails to take account of (or simply mischaracterizes) major developments that will affect resource adequacy in the next half-decade and beyond,” including ​“the pace of new resource development, the retirement of existing resources, and the well-established regulatory and market mechanisms that connect these threads.”

The Guardian visits West Olive, Michigan, where the community was excited about the closing of the Campbell plant, an event that has been planned for four years. Now there is dismay and disbelief, exacerbated by the Trump Administration’s decision to renew its 90-day order to keep the plant operating. A recent headline captured the situation: “Trump admin orders dirty, expensive coal plant to stay open even longer.” Of course, economic forces are actually driving the country in the opposite direction. In The Guardian, ex-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy notes that “California, the fourth largest economy in the world, ran on clean energy for 219 days last year. Florida built more large-scale solar infrastructure than California last year. Even in oil country, Texas is setting records for solar, wind, and battery capacity.”

In a strange twist of incentives, the DOE’s mandates could encourage more coal-fired power plants to announce plans to shut down, just to receive rate increases that allow continued operations when the Trump Administration declares another emergency. Canary Media reports that efforts by the Trump Administration to keep aging fossil-fueled power plants from closing down could end up costing U.S. utility customers billions-per-year by the end of Trump’s term. Utility Dive describes how the cost for these “emergency operations” are borne not just by local ratepayers, but by all ratepayers in the region.

Heatmap reviews how the Trump Administration is systematically trying to destroy the wind industry. The Administration just canceled the permits for the 231-turbine Lava Ridge wind project in Idaho, which had won approval during the waning weeks of Biden’s term. If that isn’t stupid enough, The New York Times reports that the Trump Administration just ordered all construction to stop on Revolution Wind, a $6.2 billion 65-turbine wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is almost 70% complete. The Trump Administration gave no reason for this order except a vague reference to “national security issues.” As one expert noted: “This action is a flashing red light for capital investment in clean energy projects. If you’ve gotten all your permits and spent billions of dollars, and even then they can pull the plug, well, who is going to want to put their money up?” Preventing investment in wind power is the only plausible goal of the Trump Administration, and it is exactly what the fossil-fuel industry wants. (The New York Times describes how Trump is attempting to do the same thing internationally.)

The Governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut have vowed to fight the decision to stop work on Revolution Wind. This is reminiscent of Trump’s effort to halt construction of New York’s Empire Wind project, which was eventually unsuccessful but cost the developer $1 billion. Canary Media visits with fishermen in New England who have also been working part-time for the wind industry, complementing their income from fishing. Theirs is a politically-complex task, as many fishermen are reflexively antagonistic to offshore wind.

While the Trump Administration is attempting to kneecap solar and wind power, it remains supportive of geothermal energy. Yale E360 examines this phenomenon, noting geothermal presently supplies just 0.4% of the nation’s power, but that will change with new technologies. Having been previously limited to certain types of shallow, permeable reservoirs — think geysers or hot springs — borrowing technology from the fracking industry has allowed what is known as “enhanced geothermal” to be placed almost anywhere. Fervo Energy plans to have a project in Utah operating in 2028 that it expects will generate as much electricity as Hoover Dam.

The Atlantic notes that Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra extends to geothermal because the same companies that drill oil and gas wells provide these services to the geothermal industry. Many drilling conglomerates like Shell, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, SLB and Chevron are investing in geothermal, and they successfully lobbied to keep tax incentives for geothermal in the reconciliation bill as solar and wind incentives were eliminated. Geothermal could meet as much as 64% of new electricity demand from data centers by the early 2030s according to a new study. It provides “roughly 10 percent of Nevada’s electricity generation and as much as 5 percent of the power California produces; Iceland generates 30 percent of its electricity, and Kenya nearly half, from geothermal.” Reuters notes that the U.S. Geological Survey recently concluded that “geothermal energy in the Great Basin of Nevada and adjoining states could produce electricity equivalent to 10% of the current U.S. power supply.” Inside Climate News visits Hayden, Colorado, where a network of geothermal wells is being developed for heating and cooling an industrial park.

The Washington Post describes an emerging solution to power problems in Puerto Rico where, by the end of summer, the power will have gone out about 93 times. A growing number of residents now have solar power and batteries in their homes, as this helps them deal with the frequent power outages. This also helps with blackouts, as many homeowners have agreements with the utility that allow it to call upon their stored power to help stabilize the grid. A utility spokesman says that this fleet of batteries, which now is the size of a small gas-fired power plant, has meant fewer outages, and when the power has gone out it has been for a shorter duration. The article notes that “authorities in Texas, California and New England have credited home batteries with preventing blackouts during summer energy crunches.”

The fleet of batteries in California (known as a “virtual power plant”) is now over 700 MW in size, more than half as big as a standard nuclear power plant. This could grow to 1.3 GW by 2028 if the state renews funding for the program (known as Demand Side Grid Support) that has helped orchestrate this effort. Canary Media describes the potential for the program, with particular focus on how it can help reduce electricity costs for consumers.

Given all the bad news circulating these days, I encourage you to listen to any of the recent interviews with Bill McKibben about his new book Here Comes the Sun (I particularly enjoyed his discussion with Chris Hayes). As I noted in the July 15th In Brief, in the past 18 months the decline in the cost of solar panels and batteries has resulted in an extraordinary acceleration of the transition away from fossil fuels. It’s worth listening to McKibben, or reading the book (which is fascinating and well done). This is an incredibly hopeful development in our efforts to combat climate change, but it is also going to result in a geopolitical realignment as countries will be able to support the well-being of their citizens with energy that they can collect within their own borders. And once solar systems are up and running, the fuel is free, allowing scarce capital to be used for other important purposes.

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