If Trump wins the US 2024 election, what will the United States' total carbon footprint be in 2025?
I will use Our World in Data's Annual CO2 emissions dataset. In 2022, OWID reported a total emissions of 5.06 billion tons. Global Carbon Budget estimates a 3% decrease for 2023 to 4.9 billion tons, although official numbers are not yet reported.
If Trump does not win the US 2024 elections, this market resolves N/A. Otherwise:
If the total number for 2025 is 4.8 billion tons or lower, this market resolves YES.
If the total number for 2025 is higher than 4.8 billion tons, this market resolves NO.
I'll use the exact number reported in the table view, not the rounded one that is seen on hover. This market will remain open until the number is added to OWID, or the backing data source, Global Carbon Budget (https://globalcarbonbudget.org/).
Partner market for Biden:
See also the longer term markets:
This seems like the kind of variable that the president wouldn't be able to change much, at least in the short term. The policy levers that can be pulled might pay off in a decade, but not in a year.
Of course, something like a carbon tax or cap-and-trade might have this kind of immediate impact. But those aren't politically feasible.
Note that OWID’s backing data source is Global Carbon Budget, which released 4.9b tons as its estimate for 2023. It used a slightly different methodology than Carbon Brief, which is a little higher across the board in estimated emissions. I chose OWID because I didn’t want Carbon Brief “grading its own homework”, and because they have a regular release schedule.