Jeff Brady
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Countries have agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more extreme storms, rainfall and heat waves.
Samantha Burgess with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts says the Earth has nearly reached that.
2024 was the hottest year in the past 11 years of all set records.
The primary driver for the hotter climate is rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from human activity such as burning fossil fuels.
The research firm Rhodium Group estimates U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.4 percent last year.
Ben King with Rhodium says higher natural gas prices encourage power plants to burn more polluting coal.
And in buildings, Americans turned up the heat.
We've had, in 2025, generally colder winters across the country.
That's leading to more use of natural gas and fuel oil for heating in the building sectors.
King says climate pollution from transportation was flat, even though people traveled more.
That's because there are more electric vehicles and hybrids on the road.
Trump policies to boost fossil fuels and hurt renewable energy had little effect on the estimates.
Those policy changes could show up in future years.
The Trump administration wants to eliminate the endangerment finding.
In 2009, during the Obama administration, the EPA found that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are warming the climate and endangering public health and welfare.
Trump has called climate change a con job.
and sought to reverse President Biden's climate agenda.