Georgia is a state covering over 57 thousand square miles, the 24th largest state in the US. With half of that space covered by pine trees, the state has the most commercial forestland in the country. Over 11 million people call the Peach State home, making it the 8th largest in the US. In addition to peaches, Georgia is also a top producer of peanuts, pecans, and Vidalia onions.
Sea level rise poses an urgent threat to the economy and environment, where seas are rising more rapidly because Georgia is subsiding. Mid-Atlantic states sit on a bulge, caused by an ice sheet during the last Ice Age, which is continuing to settle downwards. As a result, the sea level rise in this region is accelerating at twice the global average. More severe storms, a well-known result of climate change, are also having a particularly concerning effect in Georgia, a state often in the path of hurricanes and tropical storms.
The increasing temperatures add to the threat Georgia’s economy faces, as warmer weather will reduce crop yield and human productivity in sectors like farming, construction, and utilities. Additionally, Georgia’s healthcare system ranks 46th in the country, with an infrastructure lacking to deal with the adverse health effects of extreme heat. According to NOAA’s State Climate Summary, Georgia has warmed 0.8 degrees (F) since the beginning of the 20th century. Continued warming will produce intensified heat waves, extreme heat, and more intense droughts.
Georgia, and much of the Southeast U.S., has been in a drought since July 2025. These drought conditions, along with extreme heat and downed debris from Hurricane Helene, formed a “climate change trifecta” that led to unusual levels of wildfire activity in north Florida and Georgia in early 2026. With over 50,000 acres burning, Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in 91 counties. One of the wildfires was the most destructive in the state’s history. Climate change will exacerbate the risk of wildfires like these, increasing their frequency and intensity.
Natural gas and nuclear power provide 75% of Georgia’s electricity net generation. In 2025, natural gas provided 39% of the state’s total electricity generation, while nuclear power accounted for about 35%, making Georgia the fourth-largest nuclear power-producing state. Georgia has two nuclear reactors, including the nation’s largest generator of clean nuclear power, Plant Vogtle. Plant Vogtle has four commercial reactors - two were added in 2023 and 2024, making them the first new reactors built in the US in over three decades.
The rest of the state’s electricity generation comes from coal (14%) and renewable resources (13%). Coal will continue to decline as more coal-fired capacity retires. In 2022 solar energy exceeded biomass for the first time in Georgia. Historically, state policies have been hostile to solar expansion and the state legislature has pushed back on creating incentives to lower the cost of solar energy. However, since 2013, when the Public Service Commission, led by Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Jr., required Georgia Power to install hundreds of megawatts of solar farms, solar has become 8% of Georgia’s electricity generation. Utility-scale solar facilities provided the majority of the solar energy, with a capacity of 5400 megawatts at the beginning of 2026. Solar generation in Georgia has more than doubled since 2021. 3% of the total generation came from biomass, making Georgia first in the nation for electricity generated from biomass. With 29 hydroelectric power plants and 14 river basins, Georgia also has a high capacity for hydroelectric power. In April 2026, Georgia Power launched a Customer-Identified Resource Program, allowing companies to propose and fund their own clean energy projects on the utility’s grid.
While Georgia as a state does not have a Renewable Portfolio Standard, its first climate adaptation plan was released in March 2024, funded with $3 million from the EPA allocated by the Inflation Reduction Act. Produced by the Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division, in partnership with researchers from Georgia Tech, The Peach State Voluntary Emission Reduction Plan focuses on producing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, and outlining initiatives to reduce emissions. Its Priority Emission Reduction Strategies include: electrifying the transportation sector, improving energy efficiency, increasing availability and use of renewable energy, improving waste diversion and landfill management, promoting the use of alternative fuels, refrigerant management, and advancing conservation and sustainable land use. Dr. Patricia Yager, a professor at University of Georgia, said the plan shows how “Georgia is really on the cusp of transformation when it comes to addressing climate change.”
The second phase of Inflation Reduction Act funding involved states competing for $4.6 billion in grant funds from the EPA to implement their climate plans. While Georgia submitted its climate plan to apply, the state did not receive any of the funding.
Atlanta did receive a $1 million EPA grant for its own climate plan, the Metro Atlanta Climate Action Plan, but did not receive any of the second round of funding either. Atlanta had its own climate plan before the state of Georgia did, requiring city-owned buildings to use only renewable energy by 2025 and setting the target for the entire city to move to renewables by 2035.
Meanwhile Drawdown Georgia, inspired by Project Drawdown, has made its own comprehensive roadmap for taking action on climate change and reducing emissions in the state. Explore the team’s solutions and research here.
Also explore this interactive map of Georgia Climate Stories created by the Georgia Climate Project.
In December 2025, the GA Public Service Commission approved a massive expansion of the state’s natural gas power plants, in part due to the rising electricity demand from data centers moving into Georgia (Read the Grist’s comprehensive guide to the Georgia Public Service Commission here). All of the new natural gas turbines operating at full capacity would raise Georgia’s total annual emissions by over 13%. Then in January, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved four new combined-cycle gas turbines - as ozone pollution worsens in Atlanta, earning an “F” grade from the American Lung Association - leading to lawsuits from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club. According to Jennifer Whitfield, senior attorney at Southern Environmental Law Center, “The approval is going to set us even further back on making climate progress. It’s really frustrating because we were making incremental progress as a state.”
Community members in Georgia are also resisting the new data centers drawn to the state due to its favorable tax exemptions and energy rates. After a Meta data center was built in Newton County, Georgia, water taps in nearby homes ran dry and the county may face a water deficit by 2030, according to a New York Times investigation. And there’s a growing opposition to a proposed hyperscale data center called Project Ruby in Muscogee County due to the lack of transparency on potential environmental and economic implications. Multiple bills were proposed in the 2026 legislative session dealing with data centers - seeking to halt construction, roll back Georgia’s tax exemption, protect consumers from rising utility bills, or requiring disclosure of water use and electricity - but none of the bills passed.
In a case that reveals the inextricable connections between racial justice and environmental justice, activists organizing around both causes started the “Stop Cop City” or “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement to block the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in 2021. An environmental justice activist, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita, was killed by police while sleeping on the forested site to protest the construction. An ongoing legal case asks if Stop Cop City protestors can be prosecuted as domestic terrorists, which as writer Jade Yeban summarizes for Inside Climate News, will be a “national test of how states deploy terrorism laws against protest movements tied to environmental issues.”
CREDIT: GEORGIA OUTDOORS
