RELEASE: Both Canada and the US roll back climate policies

The Climate Action Tracker has just published what it views as two extremely disappointing country analyses: the US ("Critically insufficient"), and Canada ("Highly insufficient"), as both governments roll back climate policies.

The Trump Administration continues its unprecedented rollback of climate mitigation measures (see list below). The CAT still rates the US climate agenda under the Trump Administration as "Critically insufficient".

Prime Minister Mark Carney admits that the country will miss its 2030 and 2035 targets under his plan. Canada continues with a "Highly insufficient" overall rating, but the CAT has downgraded its sub-rating for Canada's Policies & action to "Critically insufficient".

"The Trump Administration continues to escalate the most aggressive, comprehensive, and consequential rollback of climate mitigation targets, policies, and funding that the Climate Action Tracker has ever analysed," said CAT US country lead Finn Hossfeld of CAT partner organisation NewClimate Institute.

In neighbouring Canada, the CAT projected that implemented and planned policies two years ago would cut emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. With many of those policies now removed or weakened, planned policies are now projected to cut emissions by less than half, to 14%.

"What is shocking to us is the true extent to which Prime Minister Carney has rolled back climate policies, largely in favour of the fossil fuel industry," said Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, a CAT partner.

"This Carney climate carnage, while not quite as bad as Trump's, is rapidly heading in the same direction, despite the country being hit by record wildfires and other devastating climate impacts. Based on this assessment, as it presently stands, if the European Union were to import the Canadian policies it would further undermine the EU‘s own climate action," said Hare.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has dismantled or weakened many of the climate policies introduced and implemented by the previous Liberal government. Canada has:

• Removed the consumer carbon price
• Cancelled the planned cap on oil and gas emissions
• Repealed the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard
• Weakened the industrial carbon pricing trajectory
• Terminated the Two Billion Trees Program early
• Introduced federal-provincial climate policy compromises and carve-outs, including on upstream oil and gas methane regulations and clean electricity regulations

Under the direction of the Trump Administration, the US government is pursuing a broad set of climate policy reversals and repeals, including but not limited to:

• Rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding, removing the legal foundation for federal regulation of emissions and repealing emissions standards for all new vehicles.
• Eliminated emissions standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants at a time where rapidly expanding artificial intelligence data centres drive unprecedented growth in electricity demand, much of which will be met by new fossil fuel generation.
• Expanded oil and gas production to record levels in 2025, which are set to further increase in 2026, as the US-Israel war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz boost demand for US fossil fuel exports.
• Greenlit more new fossil gas-fired power plants than any other country, while attempting to prevent coal plants from retiring despite market-driven coal phase-out.
• Nullified US climate targets for 2030, 2035, and 2050 by leaving the Paris Agreement and initiated the withdrawal from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), while pressuring the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to prioritise fossil fuels over renewables.
• Enacted the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), eliminating federal incentives for clean energy and technologies expanded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Renewable energy additions could fall nearly 80% below previous forecasts after 2030, while electric vehicles are projected to account for 40%-60% less of new vehicle sales in 2030.
• US states and other progressive actors are hopeful that the political winds will change after the November midterm elections and are preparing to make their presence felt at the upcoming COP.