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Global energy emissions hit a new high even as renewables expand
Energy Institute data show carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions rose to 41.0 billion metric tons in 2025, up from 40.7 billion in 2024.
The Energy Institute has released its 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, a long running global reference for energy data, and the emissions section highlights a central tension in the energy transition: clean energy is expanding, but emissions from energy and related industrial activity continue to climb. The review says global greenhouse gas emissions from energy, industrial processes, flaring, and methane associated with fossil fuel production and distribution reached another all time high. Even as solar and wind scale and renewable electricity generation rose sharply in 2025, overall emissions still increased.
According to the report, global carbon dioxide equivalent emissions rose from 40.7 billion metric tons in 2024 to 41.0 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of about 331 million metric tons. On the report’s adjusted basis, global emissions rose 1.1% for 2025, above a 10 year average growth rate of 0.9% per year.
OilPrice notes the new figures reflect another step higher in a long climb for emissions growth, while also pointing to shifts in recent trends.