Researchers are sounding the alarm over the potential impact of policy shifts under the second Trump administration.

Since the beginning of his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump has set policy that turns away from recent clean energy efforts and instead aims at accelerating the country's energy capacity via fossil fuel production. He has also rolled back environmental regulations that he believed were hindering America's energy development.

According to a report from the Rhodium Group, the drastic change of course has raised questions regarding increases in heat-trapping pollution. "The first seven months of the second Trump administration and 119th Congress have seen the most abrupt shift in energy and climate policy in recent memory," the report reads.

Ultimately, these national policy changes may have substantial global impacts. The Rhodium Group estimates that the United States is currently on track to reduce carbon emission levels by 26 to 35% by 2035. While this may offer some much-needed relief, it's a sharp decrease from the 38 to 56% reduction by 2035 that researchers predicted just last year.

Ben King, a Rhodium Group director, noted the significance of the policy shift. "That is very different to where we were before; it's more than halving the pace of decarbonization we've had over the last two decades," King told The Guardian in early September.

Elevated levels of heat-trapping gases produced by burning fossil fuels have been the driving force behind rising global temperatures. Carbon emissions effectively wrap the planet in a blanket, overheating it and fueling more intense and frequent extreme weather events. These can include severe storms, destructive floods, and prolonged, intense heat waves.

By reducing harmful pollution, we can slow the increase in global temperatures. A worldwide transition to cleaner, more renewable energy resources has been the primary strategy. Switching to sources like solar and wind has the potential to increase energy resilience while decreasing reliance on planet-heating fossil fuels.

While the U.S. was initially slow to reduce carbon emissions, King believes that any progress the country has made may now be in jeopardy. "The U.S. was already off-track in meeting its contribution to emissions cuts and this is now a fairly big step in the wrong direction," added King. "The emissions trajectory is now a lot worse because of this policy whiplash."

Jason Grumet, chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, also spoke to The Guardian about the harms that the policy shift could have on the renewable energy industry. "Unfortunately, federal policy obstacles and restrictive mandates are threatening hundreds of billions in planned energy investment," Grumet said.

These investments have included offshore wind farms, solar energy initiatives, and cost-saving rebates for prospective electric vehicle buyers. "The uncertainty created by new bureaucratic delays and unclear demands is having a chilling effect on the pipeline for future energy projects, stalling growth precisely when our nation needs more energy to power a growing economy," Grumet added.

Although the policy changes are threatening the renewable energy industry today, King noted that it will likely be a few years before the true extent of the damage is known. "We won't see the impacts of the Trump administration in the emissions data for a couple of years, I think," King explained. "But we are already seeing a slowdown in renewables installations and, to be honest, even a flatlining of emissions is a pretty bad indicator of the trajectory we need to be on."