For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency did not publish a mandatory annual report detailing the pollution produced in the United States that contributes to climate change.
As a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.S. is required to submit a national greenhouse gas emissions inventory report by April 15 each year. The U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sink Inventory report is critical for the government and the public to understand where the majority of the country’s greenhouse gas pollution comes from, so policies can be crafted to reduce it and help reach reduction goals.
When the deadline passed for the publication’s 2025 report, and it was still not available to the public, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an environmental nonprofit, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the report and published it publicly last week.
The report, which examines greenhouse gas data from 1990-2023, found that while the U.S. is making progress to reduce its most potent greenhouse gas emissions, it’s not doing it fast enough to reach certain climate goals, and environmental groups worry that new policies passed by the Trump administration might make carbon pollution worse in the future.
CBS News reached out to the EPA for comment about it not releasing the data.
“The U.S. greenhouse gas inventory is one of the most detailed and transparent in the world,” David Lyons, a senior methane scientist at EDF, told CBS News. “This is a scientific document that should help inform society.”
According to an EDF analysis of current climate and air quality standards, the U.S. would avoid 28 billion metric tons of additional climate pollution through 2055 if said policies remain in place. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 250 million cars off the road for 20 years, the analysis found. But keeping those standards in place is unlikely to happen, as the Trump administration and the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, have promised to roll back dozens of policies that would increase emissions, claiming environmental protections are too costly for many businesses.
How much has the U.S. reduced its greenhouse gas pollution?
In 2024, the U.S. published an updated goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66% from 2005 levels by 2035. But according to the 2025 inventory, the U.S. appears to be far off from that goal. In 2015, Congress said one of the United States’ targets was to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.
The report found that in 2023, gross greenhouse gas emissions dropped about 17% since 2005. Historically, the U.S. has only reduced emissions by about 5% since 1990 and 2% since 2022.
Although the U.S. still has a decade to meet that minimum goal of a 61% reduction, the current 17% reduction indicates a lot needs to change, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
“We have to further accelerate the pace of those reductions to meet our science-based climate commitments,” Peter Zalzal, associate vice president of clean air strategies for the EDF, told CBS News. “The replacement of coal power with natural gas and renewables has been driving a lot of the drop in emissions over time.”
Which greenhouse gas does the U.S. produce the most?
Carbon dioxide made up most of the greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, at nearly 80%, according to the report. This is consistent with data dating back to 1990. The U.S. does not set individual reduction targets for each gas.
Zooming in on carbon dioxide, about 93% of all carbon dioxide emissions come from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The rest comes from sources such as iron, steel, cement and petrochemical production. The more the U.S. can reduce the use of fossil fuels, the faster it will cut carbon pollution.
Which sector produces the most greenhouse gases?
The transportation sector is responsible for the most carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, producing 39%, and the electric power sector was second with 31%, according to the report.
With transportation and electricity generation, Zalzal said he is concerned that the Trump administration’s policies to disincentivize electric vehicles and prioritize fossil fuels over renewable energy will undo progress the U.S. has made to cut emissions in those two areas.
Although transportation was the top-emitting sector in 2023, it hasn’t always been. In 1990 and 2005, respectively, the electric power sector emitted the most greenhouse gases, accounting for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. By 2023, emissions from electric power had dropped to about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Since 1990, the greenhouse gas emissions in the electric power sector have dropped nearly 23% due to a larger share of renewable energy.
How does the U.S. generate its electricity?
The U.S. needs electricity, and over the years, the country’s energy generation has begun to shift to incorporate more clean sources versus traditional fossil fuels.
In the 1990s, more than half of electric power generation came from coal. But by 2023, coal had dropped to just 17% and natural gas jumped to 42%. Meanwhile, wind and solar power generated 14% of electricity in 2023. In 1990, wind and solar only made up 0.1% of all electricity generation.
“We’ve seen efforts to try to weaken important investments that the nation made in accelerating clean energy,” Zalzal said. “Rescinding them is going to take us in the wrong direction.”
