The Energy Institute has released the 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, published in partnership with Ember and in collaboration with KPMG and Kearney. The Statistical Review, previously published for more than 70 years by BP, remains one of the most important annual references for global energy data.
The full report and data can be found at this link.
As I do each year, I dig into the report’s major categories, including oil, natural gas, coal, renewables, electricity, and carbon emissions. Today, I want to start with the emissions data, because it captures the central contradiction in the global energy system.
Clean energy is growing rapidly. Solar and wind continue to scale. Electricity generation from renewables rose sharply in 2025. Yet global greenhouse gas emissions from energy, industrial processes, flaring, and methane associated with fossil fuel production and distribution still reached another all-time high.
The headline is that emissions rose again, but there were some shifts in the trends from recent years.
Another Record High
Global carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions rose from 40.7 billion metric tons in 2024 to 41.0 billion metric tons in 2025. That was an increase of about 331 million metric tons. On the Statistical Review’s adjusted basis, global emissions rose 1.1% for the year, above the 10-year average of 0.9% growth per year.
This was another step higher in a long climb. The world set emissions records in 2022, 2023, 2024, and now again in 2025.
The data in this section are broader than carbon dioxide from fuel combustion alone. The Statistical Review’s CO2-equivalent series includes energy-related emissions, industrial process emissions, flaring, and methane associated with fossil fuel production, transportation, and distribution. That distinction means the emissions trend cannot be explained only by looking at power plants and transportation.
That becomes especially clear when comparing the emissions data with the electricity data.
Global electricity generation rose strongly in 2025, increasing by about 855 terawatt-hours. But renewable generation rose by roughly 861 terawatt-hours. In other words, renewables grew by slightly more than the net increase in global electricity generation.
At the same time, global coal-fired generation fell by about 59 terawatt-hours. Natural gas-fired generation rose only modestly, by about 22 terawatt-hours, while oil-fired generation declined.
That means the global emissions increase was not simply a story of coal-fired electricity growth. At the global level, renewable power covered the entire net increase in electricity generation. Yet total emissions still rose.
That points to a broader explanation: transportation fuels, industrial activity, fossil fuel production, methane, flaring, and regional shifts in the energy mix all played a role.
The U.S. Rebound
North America accounted for 47.1% of the increase in global emissions in 2025, even though it represented only 15.6% of total global emissions. The United States was the primary reason.
U.S. emissions rose from 5.1 billion metric tons in 2024 to 5.3 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of about 147 million metric tons. On the Statistical Review’s adjusted basis, U.S. emissions rose 3.2%.
That is a sharp one-year rebound. It essentially reversed the declines of the previous two years.
There is some context. U.S. emissions remain well below their 2007 peak, and they are slightly below 1990 levels in this data series. The long-term U.S. trend is not one of runaway emissions growth.
But 2025 showed that emissions progress is not guaranteed. When energy demand rises and the power-sector mix shifts in the wrong direction, emissions can rebound quickly.
The electricity data helps explain part of the U.S. story. U.S. electricity generation increased by about 133 terawatt-hours in 2025. Renewable generation rose by nearly 99 terawatt-hours, a strong increase. But coal-fired generation also jumped by about 91 terawatt-hours, or roughly 13%. Natural gas generation fell by about 67 terawatt-hours.
That shift is important because coal is far more carbon-intensive than natural gas. A move from gas toward coal can raise emissions even when renewables are growing.
So, the U.S. story is not that renewables failed to grow. They did grow. The problem was that rising demand, combined with a rebound in coal-fired generation, overwhelmed that progress.
China Slowed Sharply
China remains the world’s largest emitter by far. In 2025, China emitted 12.5 billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions, equal to 30.5% of the global total.
But China’s emissions growth nearly stalled in 2025. Emissions increased by only about 4 million metric tons, essentially flat in a system of this size. That was a sharp slowdown from recent years.
This does not mean China is no longer central to the emissions story. Since 2000, global emissions have increased by about 14.4 billion metric tons. China’s emissions increased by roughly 8.8 billion metric tons over that period, accounting for about 61% of the global increase.
So, two things are true at the same time.
China remains the world’s largest current emitter and the dominant contributor to the rise in global emissions this century. But in 2025, China was not the main source of the global increase. The U.S. emissions rebound was far larger in absolute terms.
China’s electricity data helps explain the slowdown. China’s electricity generation rose by about 488 terawatt-hours in 2025, far more than the U.S. increase. But renewable generation rose by about 478 terawatt-hours. Nuclear generation rose by about 34 terawatt-hours, hydro increased by about 28 terawatt-hours, and coal-fired generation fell by about 80 terawatt-hours.
That is a striking contrast with the U.S. In China, rapid power demand growth was largely matched by growth in non-fossil generation. In the U.S., renewable generation rose, but coal generation also surged.
India And The Developing World
India also showed a notable slowdown. India’s CO2-equivalent emissions rose from 3.26 billion metric tons in 2024 to 3.28 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of about 21 million metric tons. That is much slower than the increases recorded in 2023 and 2024.
India’s emissions are still growing over the longer term. Over the past decade, India’s emissions have risen at an annual rate of about 3.5%. But 2025 was a relatively modest year for growth.
More broadly, non-OECD countries continue to dominate global emissions. In 2025, non-OECD countries accounted for 70.5% of global CO2-equivalent emissions, while OECD countries accounted for 29.5%. That is a major shift from 1990, when OECD countries accounted for more than half of global emissions.
But again, the 2025 regional pattern was unusual. Asia Pacific produced 51.9% of global emissions but contributed only 16.7% of the increase. North America was the main surprise, while Africa also contributed a noticeable share of the increase from a much smaller base.
Africa accounted for only 4.7% of total global emissions in 2025 but contributed 16.9% of the global increase. That reflects fast growth from a low base and is a reminder that future emissions growth will increasingly depend on how developing regions meet rising energy demand.
Europe remained largely flat. Total European emissions rose only slightly, while European Union emissions declined again. The European Union’s emissions are now about one-third below their 1990 level in this CO2-equivalent series.
The Big Picture
The 2025 emissions data tell a more nuanced story than in recent years.
It is inaccurate to say renewables are failing. Global renewable electricity generation rose enough to cover the entire net increase in global power generation. Solar and wind continue to scale rapidly. China’s emissions growth slowed sharply, in part because renewable generation surged.
But it is also not accurate to say the energy transition is cutting global emissions. Total emissions reached a new record in 2025. The world is still not reducing fossil fuel use, industrial emissions, methane, and flaring quickly enough to bend the global emissions curve downward.
The U.S. rebound is one of the most important findings in this year’s data. After years of gradual progress, U.S. emissions rose sharply because energy demand increased and coal-fired generation rebounded. The explosion of data centers likely contributed to rising electricity demand, but they were not the only factor, and the emissions record cannot be pinned on one culprit.
China’s slowdown is also important. For years, China has been the dominant driver of rising global emissions. In 2025, that changed. China remained the largest emitter, but its growth nearly stalled while U.S. emissions rebounded.
That may or may not represent a lasting shift. One year does not make a trend. But it does show how quickly the emissions picture can change when regional power mixes and energy demand move in different directions.
The bottom line is straightforward. The world added a great deal of clean electricity in 2025. But total CO2-equivalent emissions still hit another record.
That is the challenge of the energy transition in one sentence: clean energy is growing rapidly, but the overall energy system is still not decarbonizing fast enough.
