Donald Trump has treated climate policy as a battlefield, and the results are measurable in rising emissions, weakened protections, and mounting disaster costs. In seven charts, I track how his decisions translated into more greenhouse gases, more pollution, and greater risk for communities that can least afford it, from Navajo families near uranium sites to drivers paying more at the pump.
1. The Paris Pullout’s Emission Spike
The Paris Pullout’s Emission Spike began with Trump’s June 1, 2017 Statement on the Paris Climate Accord, where President Trump claimed remaining would cost the United States up to “$3 trillion in lost GDP” and “$450 billion per year,” invoking Energy and Environment as reasons to exit. He framed the Paris Climate Accord as unfair to U.S. workers and vowed to stop implementation of the national pledge.
According to a separate legal analysis, Trump then announced that “as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the Paris Agreement,” including the NDC and financial contributions, even though formal withdrawal took effect later Paris Agreement. Rhodium Group estimates that from 2017 to 2020, this retreat from Paris-compliant policies produced a cumulative 1.8 billion metric tons of extra greenhouse gas emissions, locking in more warming and undermining global trust in U.S. climate leadership.
2. Power Plant Rollbacks Fueling Deadly Air
Power Plant Rollbacks Fueling Deadly Air started when Trump signed a March 28, 2017 executive order targeting the Clean Power Plan, directing agencies to scrap carbon limits on existing power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency later replaced the Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, finalized in June 2019, which focused narrowly on efficiency tweaks at individual coal plants instead of system-wide shifts to cleaner energy.
EPA’s own 2020 analysis projected that this weaker Affordable Clean Energy rule would cause about 1,400 additional premature deaths every year by 2030 because of higher soot and smog compared with the original Clean Power Plan. Those extra deaths fall disproportionately on communities living near coal plants, often low income or communities of color, and the rollback also slows the shift away from coal, extending the life of some of the dirtiest generators on the grid.
3. Weaker Auto Rules Draining Wallets and Planet
Weaker Auto Rules Draining Wallets and Planet emerged as the Trump administration moved to relax federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for cars and light trucks. In 2018 officials proposed freezing required efficiency improvements after model year 2020 instead of continuing the Obama-era ramp-up through 2025, signaling to automakers that they could sell more gasoline-hungry SUVs and pickups without meeting stricter fleet targets.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, drawing on federal modeling, warned that this proposed rollback of CAFE standards could ultimately add around 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 and cost drivers roughly $4,600 more in fuel over the lifetime of a typical new vehicle. Those added costs hit households every time they fill up, while the extra emissions would erase much of the climate benefit expected from cleaner engines and electric vehicles that were poised to expand under the previous rules.
4. Keystone XL’s Tar Sands Torrent
Keystone XL’s Tar Sands Torrent began on January 20, 2017, when President Trump moved to revive the long-contested pipeline and later issued a new presidential permit for Keystone XL to carry crude oil from the tar sands in Canada. The project was designed to move heavy crude from Canadian oil sands and the Bakken fields in North Dakota into the U.S. system, locking in decades of high carbon production.
According to a State Department environmental review, the pipeline’s total capacity of 830,000 barrels per would significantly expand access to some of the world’s most carbon-intensive oil. Environmental groups calculated that this new fossil infrastructure could drive roughly a 0.3 percent rise in global emissions compared with a scenario without the line, undermining efforts to phase down high carbon fuels and increasing spill risks for landowners and tribal nations along the route.
5. Methane Madness from Fracking Free-for-All
Methane Madness from Fracking Free-for-All took shape when the Environmental Protection Agency under Administrator Scott Pruitt moved on April 10, 2018 to dismantle Obama-era methane standards for new oil and gas facilities. Those rules had required companies to find and fix leaks from wells, compressors, and pipelines, targeting methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide over the short term.
According to analysis by environmental advocates using EPA inventory data, the rollback of methane controls between 2018 and 2020 led to about 17 million tons of extra methane released from the oil and gas sector, with a warming impact equivalent to roughly 400 million tons of carbon dioxide. That surge in methane pollution accelerates near term warming, worsens ozone smog that harms public health, and rewards operators that cut corners on basic leak detection and repair.
6. Budget Cuts Crippling Disaster Prep
Budget Cuts Crippling Disaster Prep became clear in Trump’s 2018 budget, which proposed slashing federal climate research and resilience funding. Programs at NOAA and EPA that had totaled about $2.4 billion were cut to roughly $1.9 billion, a 20 percent reduction that hit climate modeling, satellite observations, and regional preparedness grants that help states anticipate floods, hurricanes, and wildfires.
A subsequent government watchdog review linked these cuts and staffing losses to delays in wildfire forecasting and gaps in risk communication, while NOAA’s tally of billion dollar disasters showed a 15 percent increase in uninsured losses from 2017 to 2020. Those higher uninsured losses meant families, small businesses, and local governments were left to absorb more of the damage from extreme weather that climate science had long warned would intensify as greenhouse gas concentrations rose.
7. Monument Shrinkage Poisoning Communities
Monument Shrinkage Poisoning Communities unfolded on December 4, 2017, when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, acting under Trump’s direction, carved roughly 2 million acres out of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. The reductions stripped protections from culturally rich canyonlands and high desert ecosystems, opening large swaths to new mining and drilling claims that had been off limits under monument status.
Records compiled by conservation groups showed that uranium companies quickly eyed the newly exposed lands, with leases advancing near watersheds that supply Navajo communities. Advocates warned that renewed uranium mining in these areas could contaminate water sources relied on by more than 100,000 Navajo residents, compounding a legacy of radioactive pollution on tribal lands and illustrating how Trump’s public lands agenda intersected with environmental injustice as well as climate risk.
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