"The scientific report, identifies the United States as an outlier among the nations responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions."
"The United States’ “abandonment” of a crucial climate pledge has increased the odds that the world will warm more than previously estimated, according to a United Nations scientific report released Wednesday.
The U.N.’s annual Emissions Gap Report is considered a definitive assessment of global progress on climate change. It identified the United States as an outlier among the industrialized nations that are responsible for most planet-warming pollution.
Among the Group of 20 industrialized nations, the report noted, emissions overall had slowed down in 2025, “with the United States of America being the major exception.”
That came after a year of rising electricity demand from the rapid construction of data centers to serve artificial intelligence, as well as a cold North American winter that prompted more fossil fuel use for heating.
But the United States’ most consequential action, in terms of the global effect on climate change, has been to abandon its pledge to cut its emissions that was made in 2024 under President Joseph R. Biden Jr."
Chico Harlan reports for the New York Times October 21, 2026.
