America’s ambitious climate plan is faltering

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Climate optimism is fading. Higher costs, pushback from businesses and consumers, and the slow rollout of technology are delaying the transition from fossil fuels.

Renewable energy is growing faster than expected. But surging demand for power is sucking up much of that additional capacity and forcing utilities to burn fossil fuels, including coal, for longer than expected. With greenhouse-gas emissions continuing at record levels, scientists expect floods and heat waves to get worse.

This year is on track to be the hottest on record. “The pace of our response is obviously totally insufficient," said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at Swiss university ETH Zurich. On this trajectory, “it will become increasingly impossible to face the changing climate we are going to experience," she added.

The energy transition gained momentum in recent years as prices for renewable energy tumbled. Trillions of dollars in government and private investment flowed into technologies to address greenhouse-gas emissions. Industries like autos embraced major shifts in their businesses, and companies started to count and disclose their emissions.

That momentum stalled recently when costs soared, consumers balked and businesses fought against new regulations. Politicians stepped back from ambitious climate goals or campaigned against them. A victory by Donald Trump in November could make those goals even harder to reach.

“We have this really difficult moment," said Danny Cullenward, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. “The election is a giant cliff." The bumps aren’t surprising. The energy transition was always going to be a huge, complicated, expensive