Did climate change mitigation actions and protests increase in the United States in 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows a clear uptick in climate activism and protest-related organizing in the United States during 2025, driven in large part by high-profile federal rollbacks and record-breaking climate impacts, even as measurable federal mitigation actions fell back; at the same time, subnational mitigation efforts and a proliferation of convenings and campaigns suggest mitigation activity shifted toward states, cities, corporations and civil-society campaigns rather than the federal executive branch [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Why 2025 catalyzed more street-level action
Multiple sources tie intensified protest activity to visible policy reversals and increasingly severe weather in 2025: analysts note the Trump administration’s rollback of pollution limits and support for fossil fuels as a proximate political trigger for activists to mobilize, target corporations, and escalate tactics [1] [5], while scientists and media reported 2025 as one of the hottest, most extreme-weather years—an intensifying backdrop that feeds protest urgency [2].
2. Direct evidence of increased protests and organizing
Organizations and trackers refreshed in 2025 to capture an apparent surge: Carnegie relaunched and refined its Climate Protest Tracker to better distinguish policy-targeted protests from general awareness actions, reflecting both more frequent and more policy-focused mobilizations [6] [7], and international and U.S.-based climate weeks and strikes expanded into week-long activations and summits in 2025, such as the US Climate Action Summit growing into a week of events [4] [8].
3. Mitigation actions: federal rollback versus subnational push
While federal mitigation action contracted—reporting documents regulatory rollbacks and subsidies favoring coal under the 2025 administration [1]—numerous accounts describe a countervailing increase in mitigation activity below the federal level and in civil society, with states and localities doubling down on plans and climate coalitions amplifying action through litigation, boycotts, and local policy work [3] [5]. California’s 2025 legislative year illustrates the tension: devastating fire seasons and federal pushback led to both compromises and continued state-level initiatives [9].
4. The character and impact of the uptick—targets, tactics, and reception
Scholarly reviews and reporting indicate activists increasingly combine nonviolent civil disobedience, litigation, and corporate targeting; research suggests peaceful protest generally raises public support, but controversial tactics can backfire, and public opinion about the efficacy of protests remains mixed [10] [11]. Analysts also warn that extreme weather is making protests logistically harder and sometimes more dangerous, complicating sustained mobilization even as anger and organization rise [12].
5. Limits of the evidence and competing narratives
The case for an increase in protests is persuasive but not fully quantified in published national tallies: Carnegie’s tracker relaunch signals more and better data collection but its inclusion criteria and update cadence mean comprehensive counts remain a work in progress [6] [7]. Academic and policy pieces forecast and interpret activist escalation [5], while media and think-tank accounts emphasize different aspects—some highlighting grassroots expansion and others the fragility of public support—so the narrative depends on which data slices and geographic scales are emphasized [13] [10].
6. Bottom line: mixture of more activism and shifting mitigation geography
In sum, reporting across news outlets, academic journals and policy groups shows that 2025 saw an increase in climate protests and activist pressure in the United States in response to both policy rollbacks and worsening climate impacts, while formal mitigation activity became more decentralized—pulling momentum into states, cities, businesses, courts and civil-society campaigns even as the federal government stepped back [1] [2] [3] [4]. Precise national totals and long-term effects of that surge—on emissions trajectories or law—remain to be quantified as trackers and studies update [7] [5].