US carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018, which is the biggest spike in eight years and a sure sign that the US is unlikely to meet its Paris Climate Accord pledge to reduce emissions by 2025.

The independent economic research firm Rhodium Group compiled the data from the US Energy Information Administration and other sources, and discovered that this spike comes after three years of decreases.  It backs up an earlier report from the Global Carbon Project which also found a similar increase in US emissions for 2018.

In order to meet its responsibilities under the Paris agreement of reducing US emissions to at least 26% under 2005 levels by 2025, the US will now have to reduce "energy-related carbon missions by 2.6 percent on average over the next seven years", according to Rhodium. 

"That's more than twice the pace the US achieved between 2005 and 2017 and significantly faster than any seven-year average in US history," the report states.  "It is certainly feasible, but will likely require a fairly significant change in policy in the very near future and/or extremely favorable market and technological conditions. "

It is doubtful that any of that will happen, because Donald Trump is pulling the US out of the Paris agreement by 2020 and has cancelled other environmental achievements.