United States's real recorded emissions over this period.
Source: Global Carbon Budget, via Our World in Data
Rising temperatures
March 2026 was the warmest March in the 132 year US national record, part of a decade in which record highs have consistently outpaced record lows.
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
2024 to 2026 saw a cascade of climate extremes, from the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires burning during what was already the hottest year on record, to hurricanes striking Florida and North Carolina within months of each other.
Source: NPR
Scientists at the Union of Concerned Scientists note that droughts, storms, heatwaves, flooding and sea level rise are all measurably accelerating across the country at once, not in isolation.
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists
Wildlife under pressure
More than one third of America's fish and wildlife species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades. Over 1,600 species are already listed under the Endangered Species Act, with state agencies identifying 12,000 more that need help.
Source: The Nature Conservancy
Rising water temperatures are measurably harming cold and cool water fish populations like salmon nationwide, while warming is shifting migratory songbird arrival times out of sync with food availability.
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The proposed Fiscal Year 2026 federal budget seeks to cut climate related funding across government science agencies, including programmes that support state wildlife conservation planning.
Source: The Wildlife Society
Floods, fires and displacement
The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires became the costliest disaster of that year, striking while major hurricanes had already devastated communities from Florida to North Carolina months earlier.
Source: NPR
Climate driven disaster displacement in the US is increasingly recognised in federal disaster data, even as national climate policy has moved to deprioritise the issue.
Source: IDMC global displacement tracking
What the government is doing
Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, again
In January 2025 the US formally began withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for a second time. Around half of Americans opposed the move in polling at the time, with only about one in five adults strongly or somewhat in favour.
A further step back: leaving the UNFCCC
In January 2026 the US went further, formally withdrawing from the UNFCCC itself, the parent treaty underpinning international climate cooperation since 1992. The UN's climate chief called it a decision that would leave the US "less secure and less prosperous."
Federal climate funding under pressure
The proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget seeks to cut climate related funding across federal science and wildlife agencies, reframing existing programmes as supporting what the administration calls "climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life."
Action continuing at state and market level
Despite the federal reversal, several states and private companies have continued their own emissions reduction commitments, though this leaves US climate policy considerably more fragmented than during the Paris Agreement years.
The largest historical emitter withdrew from the Paris Agreement in January 2026 and rolled back major clean energy policies. Some states and companies continue ambitious action, but national policy has moved backwards.
Climate target
Withdrew from Paris Agreement, Jan 2026
Falling behind EditorialTrajectory: No credible plan Editorial
Underlying figures from 2023. Historical trend covers years with available data from 1990 to 2023.
