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China Cuts, America Climbs: A Massive Shift in Global Emissions

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Ingmar Rentzhog

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Image of China 🇨🇳

China 🇨🇳

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For years, the U.S. has told the world: “Why should we act if China won’t?” That excuse no longer works.

New data from Carbon Monitor shows that in the first half of 2025, China’s emissions went down 2.7 percent. Coal use fell, solar capacity exploded — with 92 gigawatts installed in a single month. That’s almost as much solar as the U.S. has built in its entire history.

https://www.theenergymix.com/u-s-emissions-rise-chinas-fall-in-massive-shift-between-worlds-biggest-climate-polluters/


Meanwhile, U.S. emissions jumped 4.2 percent. Aside from the short-lived pandemic rebound in 2021, this marks the first major rise since America’s long-term decline began in 2005 — a decline of more than 15 percent. Now the roles have flipped. China is cutting. America is climbing fast. And under Trump’s fossil-first agenda, U.S. emissions won’t just rise this year — they will keep rising, year after year.

China is showing what happens when you back science and scale clean technology. America is showing what happens when you cancel science and double down on fossil fuels. Renewable energy contracts are being ripped up. Climate incentives are being revoked. Fossil expansion is back at the center of U.S. policy.

This is more than a bad headline for US. It is a dangerous reversal. For years, global progress was measured by asking: what about China? Now the question has changed: what about America? If this trend continues, the U.S. risks becoming the single biggest driver of new emissions growth by the end of this decade.

China is bending the curve down. America is breaking it and pushing it back up.

Climate 💚 Love to China for accelerating the renewable transition.
Climate ⚠️ Warning to the United States for breaking a decade of progress and dragging the world backward.

The roles have flipped. And history will remember who chose to lead — and who chose to cancel the future.

💡 Join our #MakeScienceGreatAgain initiative to stand up for science, accelerate climate solutions, and secure a livable future. We don’t have time for America’s backslide to pull the world down.


https://wedonthavetime.org/makesciencegreatagain



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