Environment at a Glance: United States
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. The text of this country profile is complementary to and has benefited from the OECD Environmental Performance Review of the United States 2023. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
The United States (US) is the world’s largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and has one of the highest levels of GDP per person in the world. The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy hard, but it recovered more rapidly than most OECD countries. The US has a service-based economy, with strong wholesale and retail trade, information and communication, real estate, financial and insurance sectors.
The US is among the most populous countries in the world. Population density is below the OECD average and varies considerably across the country, with densely populated cities, in particular along the coasts, and more sparsely populated rural areas in the interior.
The US is the third-largest country in the world and has a highly diverse landscape, ranging from beaches, mountains and plains to forests and deserts. Its climatic zones and ecosystems are correspondingly varied, including tropical and temperate forests, grasslands, deserts, wetlands, tundra, coral reefs, kelp forests, and sandy and rocky intertidal zones.
The US is also a major producer of metals and minerals, and precious metals such as gold and silver to copper, nickel, iron, lead, uranium, bauxite, mercury, tungsten and zinc.
The US Constitution establishes a federal system of government, which divides power between the federal government, the 50 states and the District of Columbia. States have considerable authority to shape environmental policies and regulations through their responsibilities for energy, transportation, land-use planning and natural resource management.
The United States has decoupled carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion and total energy use from economic growth. This is mainly due to a continued shift away from coal towards less carbon-intensive energy sources (such as natural gas and renewables in the electric power sector) as well as technological changes, such as improved energy efficiency. The drop of emissions in 2020 was due to the pandemic outbreak and associated reduction in activity and consumption.
Although per person production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) and demand-based (or footprint, i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been steadily declining since the mid-2000s, they remain well above the OECD averages. Despite being one of the biggest oil producers, demand-based emission intensity remains higher than the production-based, meaning that the US is a net importer of emissions embodied in final demand (i.e. demand for goods and services by all residents).
Fossil fuel combustion accounts for the bulk of CO2 emissions. Transport is the largest emitter of CO2 followed by electricity generation and manufacturing industry. More than 90% of the energy use in transportation comes from petroleum. Emissions from transport have remained fairly stable since 2000. The combined effect of increased demand for travel and improvements in average new vehicle fuel economy since 2005 have slowed the rate of increase of CO2 emissions. Emissions from industry have generally declined over the past decades, due to structural changes in the economy (i.e. shifts from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy), fuel switching, and energy efficiency improvements.
Other sources of GHG emissions come from, in order of magnitude, commercial, and residential sectors, agriculture, and emissions from US Territories (e.g. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa) (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
Agricultural soil management activities, such as fertiliser application and other cropping practices, are the largest source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, while the main sources of methane (CH4) include enteric fermentation from domestic livestock, natural gas systems, landfills, domestic livestock manure management, coal mining, and petroleum systems. Emissions from agriculture have increased mainly due to increased cattle stocks. Emissions from waste have decreased because of increased landfill gas collection and control systems, and a reduction of biodegradable materials (i.e., paper and paperboard, food scraps, and yard trimmings) discarded in municipal solid waste landfills (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023). The Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector acts as a net carbon sink.
The country is endowed with abundant natural resources and is one of the largest energy producers in the world. The shale revolution that began in 2005, led by technological advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, has reduced oil and gas production costs and led to an unprecedented increase in output. It made the US the world’s largest producer of oil and gas and has turned it into a net energy exporter. The abundance of low-cost natural gas has resulted in gas-fired generation overtaking coal-fired generation in the power sector (IEA, 2019).
The US is the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of energy. Energy intensity per unit of GDP has been decreasing in recent decades, especially since the decline in economic output and energy consumption after the financial crisis in 2008-09 but remains one of the highest among OECD member countries.
Fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy mix and account for a larger share than in most other OECD countries. The shares of gas and renewables in the energy mix have increased since 2000, while the shares of oil and coal have declined.
Renewable energy is playing an increasingly important role, especially in power generation, but its share in the energy and electricity mix remains below the OECD average. Although wind and solar are growing rapidly, the major source of renewable energy is still bioenergy and waste, together with bio-gasoline (fuel ethanol). The US is a world leading ethanol producer. Hydro is the third largest source of renewables.
Emissions of most major air pollutants have decreased since 2000, with the exception of ammonia (NH3).1 Transport, industrial processes and energy production are the major sources of NO2. Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOCs) are emitted primarily from industrial processes and transportation. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) is primarily emitted from coal combustion for electric power generation and the metals industry. Fine particulates (PM2.5) emissions originate primarily from agriculture, industrial processes, residential combustion, transport and waste.
Large reductions in pollutant emissions are due to the implementation of regulations as part of the Clean Air Act in 1990. Announced in 2021, EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan represents the most protective set of EPA regulations for the on-road sector and is anticipated to lead to significant reductions in NOx, PM2.5, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). SO2 emissions have decreased in recent years, primarily as a result of electric power generators switching from high to low-sulphur coal and installing flue gas desulphurisation equipment. Carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) emission intensities are above the OECD average. Mobile sources and agriculture are major sources of CO emissions.
In 2024, the US EPA strengthened the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter. The annual PM2.5 standard was lowered to 9 micrograms per cubic meter to provide increased public health protection. The average mean population exposure to PM2.5 is among the lowest in the OECD.
The US has abundant freshwater resources: the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio river systems drain about 40% of the continental land area. Latest data show that the US are under moderate water stress, with a decreasing trend. However, the national average masks important sub-national variations. In the Southwest (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), which is the country’s most arid region, water demand for irrigation exceeds available water resources (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
Abstractions for public supply have declined since 2005, partly due to restrictions on public-supply water use in response to severe droughts and to more water-efficient household appliances (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023). However, per person total abstractions and abstractions for public supply remain high compared to other OECD countries. This is partly due to increased use required for technological expansion.
The proportion of safely treated domestic wastewater flows was 89.9 % in 2018. Over 16% of households were not served by public sewers and depend on septic tanks to treat and dispose of wastewater (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
Generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) has risen in the past decade.2 The US has the highest per person generation intensity among OECD countries, partly reflecting the economy’s high level of consumption.
The share of MSW landfilled has decreased since 2000 but still represents 50% of amounts treated. At the same time, the share of recycling and composting increased to 23.6% and 8.5% respectively, slightly below the OECD average. About 12% of MWS is incinerated with energy recovery. In 2021, the US National Recycling Strategy set the goal to more than double the national recycling rate of municipal solid waste to 50% by 2030.
The US is a major producer of metals, minerals and phosphates, including gold, silver, copper, nickel, iron, lead, uranium, and zinc.
Consumption of materials decreased overall after 2000, albeit with fluctuations, while GDP continued to increase, resulting in increased material productivity. Per person material consumption decreased until the early 2010s and has remained fairly stable since.
As in most OECD countries, domestic material consumption (DMC) is dominated by non-metallic minerals (mostly construction materials), followed by biomass and fossil energy materials. The decrease of DMC over 2000-2009 is due to a drop in non-metallic minerals following the 2008 financial crisis, while consumption of biomass increased. Since then, DMC slightly increased.
The US is a large and diverse country, with ecosystems ranging from the Arctic tundras of northern Alaska to the tropical forests of Hawaii and the overseas territories. Forests are common in the eastern US, mountainous regions of the west and Alaska. Cropland is concentrated in the mid-continent regions, and grassland is more common in the western part and Alaska. Wetlands are fairly ubiquitous, though they are more common in the upper Midwest and eastern portions of the country, as well as coastal regions. Settlements are more concentrated along the coastal margins and in the eastern states.
The US is a megadiverse country, hosting more than 60 000 species. There are over 1 670 species listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Since 2000 about 445 species were added to the list: additions peaked between 2010 and 2016 with an average of 47 species added each year, but significantly decreased since, to about 6 species per year between 2017 and 2022. Recent years have seen a slight increase to 26 in 2023, and 16 in 2024. Under the ESA, US Fish and Wildlife Service reviews the status of species that are candidates for listing at least once every year. Five-year reviews of listed species subsequently allow for updating conservation and recovery efforts at the individual species level (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
Thirteen percent of US lands and inland waters are protected with a primary intent for biodiversity management and an additional 17% is protected for multiple uses. Nineteen percent of the marine exclusive economic zone is protected.3 Given the size of the country, the US has the second largest (after Australia) protected areas network among OECD countries, covering about one million km2 of land and 1.7 million km2 of waters. Although not a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the US helped to develop and endorsed the 2010 Aichi targets (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
The US relies on a broad range of instruments to mitigate climate change and address broader environmental objectives. Examples for climate and air pollution include non-trade distorting subsidies for low emission technologies, the incorporation of climate change mitigation measures into public investments and regulatory instruments such as air pollution emission standards of coal fired-power plants, minimum energy performance standards for electric motors, electric appliances, passenger cars and heavy duty vehicles, energy efficiency mandates for large energy consumers, as well as energy efficiency labels for electric appliances and passenger cars (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
The share of environmentally related tax revenue in GDP decreased since 2010 and is well below the OECD average, partly due to the fact that US’s energy taxation levels are relatively low. Fuel taxes are relatively low, and taxes on diesel and petrol for motor vehicles are the lowest in the OECD. As in many countries, most receipts come from taxes on energy products and on transport. Taxes on pollution and resource management such as landfill taxes, water pollution taxes and biodiversity-related taxes do not raise much revenue.
The US does not have an explicit federal carbon tax. However, carbon trading systems have been enacted at sub-national levels. For instance, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative includes 12 states in a cap-and-invest program for the power sector. California has a multi-sectoral cap-and-trade program that covers approximately 85% of the state’s emissions (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
In total, 33.3% of GHG emissions in the US were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate4 (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in the US consist of emissions trading systems (ETS) permit prices, which cover 8.1% of GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, covered 28% of emissions in 2023. Direct fossil fuel subsidies cover 2.5% of emissions. About 6% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net Effective Carbon Rates are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 23.8% of the country’ s total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, 2024).
The US is a leader in clean energy innovation and deployment, albeit it’s leadership worldwide is declining. The number of inventions in environmental technologies filed for protection in the US represents about 17% of inventions worldwide, down from 33% in 2005, and the share in total (all technologies) inventions, at about 6% in 2023, is below OECD average.
The US is by far the largest research and development (R&D)-investing economy. As in many other countries most investments are made by the private sector, with public R&D on environmental technologies well below 1% of total public R&D. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act strengthens support for innovation and technology deployment through an expanded R&D Tax Credit for small businesses and funding for state and local financing initiatives that accelerate investment in low-emission technologies, with a focus on underserved communities (OECD, Environmental Performance Reviews: United States, 2023).
The United States was the world’s largest provider of official development assistance (ODA) in 2024 and had substantial development programmes in all sectors and regions. However, in 2025, US ODA decreased by 57% reaching 0.09% of GNI. Foreign assistance priorities include global health, economic security, and resilient infrastructure. The US Department of State’s five-year (2026-2030) strategic plan does not prioritise climate and the environment. The shares of bilateral ODA targeting climate and biodiversity were low, at 12.1% and 3.2%, respectively, in 2023-24 (OECD, 2026).
References
EPA. (2024). Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2022. EPA 430-R-24-004. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-04/us-ghg-inventory-2024-main-text_04-18-2024.pdf
IEA. (2019). The US shale revolution has reshaped the energy landscape at home and abroad, according to latest IEA policy review. Retrieved from https://www.iea.org/news/the-us-shale-revolution-has-reshaped-the-energy-landscape-at-home-and-abroad-according-to-latest-iea-policy-review
OECD. (2023). Environmental Performance Reviews: United States. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/47675117-en
OECD. (2024). Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down. OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/b44c74e6-en
OECD. (2026). Development Co-operation Profiles. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/united-states_884f742e-en.html
Further reading
Energy Information Administration, “Annual Energy Outlook”, https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/
EPA (2022), “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2020”. US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 430-R-22-003. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/draft-inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks-1990-2020
EPA, “Facts and Figures report”, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/advancing-sustainable-materials-management
EPA, “Land Use”, https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/land-use#effect.
EPA, “National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling”, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials
EPA, “Our nation's air: trends through 2020”, https://gispub.epa.gov/air/trendsreport/2021/#home
EPA Report on the Environment: https://www.epa.gov/report-environment
IEA (2019a), Energy Policies of IEA Countries: United States 2019 Review, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-policies-of-iea-countries-united-states-2019-review
Nature Serve, Explorer, https://explorer.natureserve.org/Search
OECD (2022), “Effective Carbon Rates: Key findings for the United States”, https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/carbon-pricing-united-states.pdf
OECD (2020), OECD Economic Surveys: United States 2020, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/12323be9-en.
OECD (2016), Water risk hotspots for agriculture: the case of the southwest United States, COM/TAD/CA/ENV/EPOC(2016)5/FINAL.
The White House (2022), FACT SHEET: The Inflation Reduction Act Supports Workers and Families, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/19/fact-sheet-the-inflation-reduction-act-supports-workers-and-families/
UNFCCC, “NDC Registry: United States of America First NDC (After rejoining the Paris Agreement)”, https://unfccc.int/NDCREG
United States Bureau of Economic Analysis, https://www.bea.gov/data
United States Census: https://www.census.gov/data.html
United States Government open data repository: https://www.data.gov/
United States National Statistics for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, https://sdg.data.gov/
University of Michigan Center for sustainable systems, “U.S. Wastewater Treatment Factsheet”, https://css.umich.edu/us-wastewater-treatment-factsheet
UNSTAT, “SDG country profile: United States of America”, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal/countryprofiles/USA
US Fish and Wildlife Service, “Listed Species Summary”, https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/boxscore
USGS, “Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015”, https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1441/circ1441.pdf
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← 1. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s National Emissions Inventory (NEI), released every three years, incorporates methodology improvements during each NEI cycle. The 2020 NEI is the most recent and is publicly available on the EPA website.
← 2. Break in time series in 2018: the US enhanced its food waste measurement methodology, which resulted in capturing more food waste than in previous years and thus a larger increase in MSW generation between 2017 and 2018.
← 3. the US classification includes the Great Lakes in marine waters, which increases the share of marine waters that are protected to 26%.
← 4. Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) is the sum of fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradeable permits that effectively put a price on carbon emissions. The Net ECR equals the ECR minus fossil fuel subsidies that decrease pre-tax fossil fuel prices.