From how climate change will impact food production to how habitat protections influence home prices and the role of markets in reducing pollution while maintaining growth, EPIC-affiliated scholars shed new light on some of the most crucial topics in energy and climate in 2025. Many of these insights are best illustrated through data presented in easy-to-digest charts. Here are ten of our favorite charts from 2025.
#1 – Climate Change Dampens Food Production, With Some Suffering More than Others
Climate change will lead to changes in the weather across the globe, with some places getting hotter or wetter, and others cooler or drier. These changes will, in turn, lead to changes in food production. Researchers at the Climate Impact Lab measured the effect of climate change on six staple crops—corn, soybean, rice, wheat, cassava and sorghum. They found every additional degree Celsius of global warming on average drags down the world’s ability to produce food by about 4 percent of current daily consumption. But these impacts are not equal around the world. Today’s richer, breadbasket regions experience the greatest losses—about 40 percent. The world’s poorest regions also experience significant losses, with crops declining 20-30 percent by the end of the century. Taking actions to adapt—like switching crop varieties, shifting planting and harvesting dates, or altering fertilizer use—doesn’t eliminate the threat. The data shows adaptation measures can offset about one-third of climate-related agricultural losses in 2100 if emissions continue to rise, but two-thirds remain.
#2 – Markets Can Reduce Pollution, Increase Profits, and Improve Compliance
Forty-nine of the top 50 countries with the most polluted air are located in the Global South. Yet, many of these countries haven’t had the tools to address pollution without compromising economic growth. Some have relied on a costly and difficult-to-enforce command-and-control approach. EPIC Director Michael Greenstone and his co-authors worked with the Indian state of Gujarat to test a new approach. They launched the world’s first particulate pollution market in the city of Surat. Facilities outside of the market following command-and-control rules didn’t comply with the rules about a third of the time. With the market’s more flexible approach, only 1 percent of facilities didn’t comply. Those facilities in the market were also emitting 20 to 30 percent less pollution than those in the command-and-control group. And, it cost the facilities in the market 11 percent less to comply, increasing their profits. EPIC has since launched the Emissions Market Accelerator to work with governments globally to scale up this approach.
#3 – Requiring Climate Disclosure Could Create Pressure for High-Emitters to Reduce Emissions to be Closer to Peers
Starting in January 2026, publicly listed Brazilian companies will be required to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. This follows similar actions taken around the world—from Australia to New Zealand and the European Union. What will we learn from these disclosures? EPIC launched the Climate Disclosure Explorer to unpack the societal cost of greenhouse gas emissions coming from corporate activities, known as corporate carbon damages. Based on work by UChicago’s Christian Leuz, Michael Greenstone and their co-author Patricia Breuer, the platform shows average corporate carbon damages are large, equaling about 44 percent of firms’ operating profit, but the damages vary significantly within each sub-industry. If all high emitters reduced their emissions to meet the sub-industry median damages, the researchers estimate that it would reduce total emissions by 49 percent.
#4 – Nearly 5 Billion Lack Pollution Information—A Critical Tool to Protect Public Health
When people understand the air they breathe is harmful to their health, they can take action. Air quality monitors can give them this information at a local level, daily. Yet nearly 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where fewer than three monitors exist for every one million people—leaving nearly 5 billion people, many of whom live in some of the world’s most polluted countries, without access to adequate information about their air. EPIC’s Air Quality Fund is supporting 31 awardees in government, academia, and civil society who are installing more than 700 monitors across 19 countries where citizens are losing a combined 2 billion life years due to particulate pollution. But, more work remains. These 19 countries are part of a cohort of 83 countries that the Air Quality Fund points to as having a “higher opportunity” to generate impact if given a small investment toward building up their air quality infrastructure. The 2.9 billion people living in these countries are seeing their lives cut short by about 1.7 years on average because of air pollution.
#5 – There is a Large Republican Age Divide on Climate and Energy Policies
Each year, EPIC partners with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to survey the American public on key climate and energy issues. This year’s poll found that younger Republicans (18-29) disagree with their older counterparts (60+) on a wide variety of energy and climate policies. Generally, more younger Republicans think it is important to expand clean energy and support incentives for electric vehicles and funding to help communities adapt to climate change. The divide between younger and older Republicans on these issues ranges from a 16-point to a 21-point difference. This follows in line with the trend that an increasing share of younger Republicans believes in human-driven climate change. Conversely, older Republicans support the expansion of traditional fossil fuel energy. While 39 percent of young Republicans support expanding U.S. oil and gas production, 80 percent of older Republicans said the same—a 40-point difference. There was less divide over support for nuclear development.
#6 – Home Prices Increased In Communities Surrounding Protected Habitats
While studies have shown a clear link between the decline in wildlife species and impacts on human health, the principal law protecting wildlife—the Endangered Species Act—is often under fire. A chief complaint is that the Act’s habitat protections decrease property values. Harris School of Public Policy Assistant Professor Eyal Frank and his co-authors found that across the United States, on average, that is not the case. Homes inside protected areas hardly depreciated in value, while homes just outside protected areas appreciated in value. Additionally, the sale price of homes just outside protected areas increased by as much as 10 percent as these areas became saturated markets where homeowners valued “backing up to open space.”
#7 – More States are Impacted by Climate-Driven Wildfires and the Air Pollution They Cause
The United States and Canada suffered the largest increase in fine particulate pollution globally in 2023, fueled by the worst wildfire season in Canada’s history, according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI). In the United States, the fires contributed to pollution levels not seen in over a decade and a 20 percent rise from 2022. The resulting pollution spread across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and even extended to Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and as far south as Mississippi. Counties in these states were the top 10 most polluted regions in the country—replacing counties in California, which typically dominate the list.
#8 – The Impact of Heavy Rains and Floods is Highly Unequal
Nearly 1.8 billion people live in flood-prone areas—a number expected to rise with rapid urbanization and climate change. At the same time, drainage, sanitation and waste systems have not kept pace in many parts of the Global South, leading to both immediate deaths and longer-term disease outbreaks. EPIC researcher Ashwin Rode studies the impact of rainfall on mortality in one of the world’s largest cities—Mumbai, India. He finds heavy rainfall accounts for about 8 percent of deaths during a typical monsoon season—a number comparable with cancer deaths in the city. The impact of this rainfall takes a heavier toll on the poor, accounting for 11 percent of deaths in the city’s slums, as well as women and children, making up 11 percent and 18 percent of deaths, respectively. Intense bursts of rain and high tides lead to more deaths. These deaths will increase by about 20 percent with climate change’s increased rainfall and sea level rise, if steps aren’t taken to adapt.
#9 – Experience Producing EVs Drives Down Costs, Driving Up Sales, and Boosting the Effectiveness of Subsidies
Between 2010 and 2020, the cost of electric vehicle (EV) batteries dropped by nearly 90 percent, due greatly to learning-by-doing, where production experience leads to lower costs through improved efficiency and reduced waste. Harris School of Public Policy Assistant Professor Hyuk-soo Kwon and his co-authors quantify the impact of learning-by-doing on declining EV battery costs and examine how learning-by-doing influences the effectiveness of policies like subsidies. They find that with subsidies alone, global EV sales would increase by 29.9 percent. But when learning-by-doing is considered, global EV sales surge by 170 percent. This combined effect is 60 percent greater than either subsidies or learning-by-doing can accomplish alone.
#10 – Delivering Clean Water is Highly Cost Effective
More than 2 billion people lack reliable sources of safe water. Harris School of Public Policy Assistant Professors Fiona Burlig and Amir Jina, and EPIC Non-Resident Scholar Anant Sudarshan test an approach to confront this challenge: home delivery of clean water. They found, at very low prices, about 90 percent of households chose to order the clean water, with fewer willing as the price increased. This was a cost-effective approach, costing only $71 to $226 per life year saved, on par with some of our best public health interventions. This was similar to the cost-effectiveness of providing chlorine tablets for households to treat their own water, which costs $33 to $106 per life year saved. Because the home-delivered water has much higher take-up rates than the chlorine tablets, it is an important addition to our toolkit for solving the clean water access problem.