Colorado, like most other states, is getting hotter and dryer. NOAA’s U.S. Climate Normal series shows that from 2011-2020 most areas of Colorado experienced warmer temperatures and decreased rainfall. Colorado State University released the third edition of their Climate Change in Colorado Report in 2024, revealing that average state temperatures rose 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1980 to 2022 due to climate change, and nine of the 11 hottest years on record have occurred since 2012. This makes Colorado the 20th fastest-warming state. As extreme heat increases across the state, Colorado is predicted to experience an increase in wildfires, more severe and frequent droughts, and redacted snowpack and streamflow. The diminishing snowpack is contributing to the state’s ongoing water crisis, affecting crops, and is bad news for the state’s billion dollar ski industry. In 2024, the state issued 41 alerts for residents to stay inside due to dangerous levels of air pollution from the combined impacts of wildfires, coal and gas-fired power plants, and transportation.
According to the EIA, in 2024 Colorado’s crude oil production was the highest in five years, making it the nation’s fourth-largest oil producing state. However, in 2024 natural gas and wind energy both surpassed coal-fired generation for the first time in the state’s history, each accounting for 29% of total electricity generation. Coal-fired plants accounted for 27% of the state’s generation, while renewable sources reached a record-high with 43%, mostly from wind and solar. Wind generation in Colorado has more than doubled in the last decade, with the state ranking seventh in the nation for installed wind capacity. Colorado is one of the top 10 states for total energy production, while its per-capity energy consumption is lower than about two-thirds of states. Colorado is committed to a target of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.
Colorado utilities have been cutting their own use of coal, in part due to the legislation requiring the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but also because of the falling cost of wind and solar. In 2021, NPR’s Steve Inskeep covered a Colorado story of a closing coal plant transitioning to a new “kind of renewable energy storage.” It would reuse the steam turbine, the transmission facilities and add a massive tank of salt. When melted, the salt would create steam to run the turbine and generate electricity, thus creating power when the grid needed it. By 2029, 2500 megawatts of coal-firing capacity is scheduled to retire in Colorado.
Colorado State University-Pueblo became the first campus in the state to reach net-zero efficiency in 2021 when the school switched on its 23-acre solar array project. Other colleges in the state followed: CU Boulder’s Climate Action Plan sets commitments for zero emissions by 2050, the University of Denver is installing 23 megawatts of solar panels to help reach their goal of net zero by 2030, Colorado College is home to the nation’s largest net-zero energy academic library, and Colorado Mesa University has reduced its carbon footprint and increased its energy efficiency through an advanced geothermal network.
In 2024, Governor Polis approved over $7 million in grant funding for geothermal energy.
The Colorado Energy Office published a Microgrid Roadmap 1.0 in January 2025 to explore the adoption of microgrids for increasing grid resilience amid increased extreme weather events, and in February 2025 published the Colorado Carbon Management Roadmap to explore opportunities to implement carbon management strategies to help the state meet its net-zero target.
In April 2025, Governor Polis signed a bill reclassifying nuclear energy as a clean energy source, allowing nuclear plants to receive local grants reserved for clean energy and counting those projects as part of the state’s plan to achieve its clean energy goals.
In February 2026, a bill was introduced in the state senate requiring data centers to build or purchase renewable energy to cover electricity usage by 2031, while also mandating reporting on annual energy and water usage.
In response, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed lawsuits against the Trump administration to challenge these actions, citing the illegal termination of funding and violation of the Separation of Powers Act.
In 2019, Governor Jared Polis began creating plans for Colorado to wean itself off fossil-fuel energy use, replacing it with renewable sources, and drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the coming years. In May of that year, Polis signed into law the Climate Action Plan To Reduce Pollution. That and the Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap, also issued by the governor, set goals of reducing emissions from 2005 levels by at least 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2050. “This is our plan for creating a pathway to 100% renewable energy in our state, creating good green jobs that can never be outsourced, and saving people money on electricity,” Governor Jared Polis said in a press release from 2019. These targets were updated in 2023 when Governor Polis committed Colorado to net-zero emissions by 2050. You can find a compilation of biannual reports on the roadmap’s goals here. According to the latest report (June 2025), Colorado is projected to achieve its 2030 GHG goals in 2031, and will become the first state to achieve a 50% emissions reduction.
By June 2021, Governor Polis had also signed a bipartisan Energy Transition bill into law providing $15 million to help workers and localities dependent on coal transition to a clean energy economy. The bill funded the Office of Just Transition, created in 2019 to aid workers and communities dependent on coal as utilities in the state shift toward clean energy. The Colorado Just Transition Action Plan outlines how “through a just transition we intend to help each community end up with more family-sustaining jobs, a broader property tax base, and measurably more economic diversity than when this process began in 2019.”
In 2022, Governor Polis signed a package of laws with over $340 million in investments in environmental projects including electric school buses, e-bike rebates, building efficiency, low-carbon rebuilding after natural disasters, and aerial monitoring of industrial emissions. Two laws in geothermal research and education were also passed in 2022.
In June 2023, the governors of Colorado and Wyoming signed a multi-state agreement to collaborate on direct air capture, a carbon removal technology.
In February 2024, Governor Polis issued the Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap 2.0 which updates modelling from the initial roadmap and supplies additional climate policy for 2024-2026. And, in March 2024, Colorado produced a Priority Climate Action Plan under the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program.
In 2024, Governor Polis signed a package of bills increasing fees on oil and gas production. The bulk of the money raised would fund public transportation.
Colorado joined 10 other states in launching the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition in May 2025 to advance investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and legislation amidst dismantling actions from the federal government.
Colorado is one of twenty four states and territories committed to the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors, created in 2017, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Read Colorado’s U.S. Climate Alliance Fact Sheet here.
The Supreme Court will review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling on the climate accountability case brought by Boulder, Colorado against Exxon and Suncor entities. Boulder County and the City of Boulder (along with San Miguel County in a separate case) sued the companies in 2018, arguing they should be responsible for damages due to their contributions to climate change which have harmed residents. As Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett said, “Local communities are living with the mounting costs of climate change. The Supreme Court should affirm Colorado’s right to hold these companies accountable for the harm they have caused in Colorado.” The case could have significant impacts for other climate lawsuits moving forwards.
Created by the Environmental Justice Act in 2021, the Colorado Environmental Justice Grant Program awarded over $3 million in grants for its third cycle (2025-2027), supporting projects that aim to reduce pollution in disproportionately impacted communities - projects are listed on the state’s Environmental Justice Grants Dashboard.
CREDIT: Rocky Mountain PBS
