What will be the climate fallout from Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’?
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” just signed by President Trump will slash support for clean energy, leaving the US far short of its Paris Agreement pledge
By James Dinneen
8 July 2025
Solar panels in Tucson, Arizona, US
Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Cuts to clean energy spending in the bill President Donald Trump signed into law on 4 July could lead to billions of tonnes of additional CO2 emissions over the next decade, according to early estimates. The US was already behind on its Paris Agreement pledge to cut emissions in half by 2030, and the slowdown will leave the country – the world’s second-largest emitter after China – even further off track.
“While other countries are benefiting from accelerated investment in the clean energy economy, the US is taking a step backwards,” David Widawsky at the World Resources Institute, an environmental advocacy group, said in a statement.
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The sweeping legislation – known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” – contains more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $350 billion in new spending for immigration enforcement and the military.
Republicans in Congress included funding cuts to clean energy, along with larger cuts to affordable healthcare and food programs, to offset that spending. Over the next few years, the law will end hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tax credits aimed at boosting low-emission energy sources and uses established by the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed under the Biden administration.
Researchers at Princeton University modelled how the policy change would affect the US energy system and emissions over the next decade. They found the law substantially slows the decline in US greenhouse gas emissions that were expected under the Biden administration’s policies, effectively repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.
