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Countries around the world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change , yet global greenhouse gas emissions—and with them—.

When it seems like we're getting nowhere, it's useful to step back and examine the progress that has been made.

Let's take a look at the United States, historically the . Over those three decades, the and the economy, as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, .

Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases—transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and cooling of buildings—have remained over the past 30 years. Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions drop significantly.

Overall, the U.S. is still among the countries with the highest , so there's room for improvement, and its emissions haven't fallen enough to put the country on track to meet under the 10-year-old . But U.S. about 15% over the past 10 years.

Here's how that happened:

US electricity emissions have fallen

U.S. electricity use lately with the shift toward more electrification of cars and heating and cooling and expansion of data centers, yet greenhouse gas emissions from electricity are down by almost 30% since 1995.

One of the main reasons for this big drop is that Americans are using less coal and more natural gas to make electricity.

Both coal and natural gas are fossil fuels. Both to the atmosphere when they are burned to make electricity, and that carbon dioxide traps heat, raising global temperatures. But power plants can using natural gas compared with coal, so it produces less emissions per unit of power.

Why did the U.S. start using more natural gas?

Research and technological innovation in fracking and horizontal drilling have allowed companies to extract more oil and gas at lower cost, making it from natural gas rather than coal.

As a result, utilities have built more natural gas power plants—especially super-efficient gas power plants, which produce power from gas turbines and also capture waste heat from those turbines to generate more power. More coal plants have been shutting down or running less.

Because natural gas is a more efficient fuel than coal, it has been a win for climate in comparison, even though it's a fossil fuel. The U.S. has reduced emissions from electricity as a result.

Significant , from appliances to lighting, have also played a role. Even though tech gadgets seem to be recharging everywhere all the time today, household electricity use, per person, since the 1940s.

Costs for renewable electricity, batteries fall

U.S. renewable electricity generation, including wind, solar and hydropower, has , helping to further reduce emissions from electricity generation.

Costs for solar and wind power have fallen so much that they are now and competitive with natural gas. Fourteen states, including most of the Great Plains, now get from solar, wind and battery storage.

While wind power has been cost competitive with fossil fuels for , solar photovoltaic power has only been competitive with fossil fuels for . So expect deployment of solar PV to , both in the U.S. and internationally, even as U.S. .

Both wind and solar provide intermittent power: the sun does not always shine, and the wind does not always blow. There are a number of ways utilities are dealing with this. One way is to use , offering lower prices for power during off-peak periods or discounts for companies that can cut their power use during high demand. aggregate several kinds of distributed energy resources—solar panels on homes, batteries and even smart thermostats—to manage power supply and demand. The U.S. had an estimated in 2024, equivalent to about 37.5 nuclear power reactors.

Another energy management method is battery storage, which is just now . Battery enough in the past few years to make utility-scale battery storage cost-effective.

What about driving?

In the U.S., gasoline consumption has remained roughly constant but over the decades.

Sales of electric vehicles, which could cut emissions more, have been slow, however. Some of this could be due to the success of fracking: U.S. , and gasoline and diesel .

People in other countries are switching than in the U.S. as the cost of EVs has fallen. Chinese consumers can buy an entry-level EV for in China with the help of government subsidies, and the country .

In 2024, people in the U.S. bought , and global sales reached , up 25% from the year before.

The unknowns ahead: What about data centers?

The construction of , in part to serve the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, is drawing a lot of attention to and to the uncertainty ahead.

Data centers are increasing electricity demand in some locations, such as , Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago and Atlanta. The future , though, meaning the effects of data centers on electric rates and power system emissions are also uncertain.

However, AI is not the only reason to watch for increased electricity demand: The U.S. can expect growing electricity demand for industrial processes and electric vehicles, as well as the overall transition from using oil and gas for heating and appliances that continues across the country.

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