U.S. carbon dioxide emissions will fall in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic, with the decline largely concentrated in the power sector, a new report says. BloombergNEF.
In its latest “America’s Sustainable Energy” report, released early Wednesday morning, the research organization found that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 6.2 billion tons, down 1.8% from a year ago, and that nearly all sectors except transportation account for 6.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. reported that emissions are decreasing. With the exception of 2020, the last time U.S. emissions have been this low has been since 1987, which is about 40 years ago.
“If there was a post-COVID-19 rebound, it appears to have ended,” the report’s summary says.
This post-pandemic emissions reduction comes as the United States and other countries work to reduce emissions in several sectors, primarily transportation and power. Restrictions on travel and economic activity during the pandemic reduced global emissions by about 2 billion tons in 2020, with U.S. emissions dropping by 10%. But as society began to reopen in the months after the peak of the pandemic, emissions began to recover. Since the pandemic, the federal government has spent billions of dollars to reduce emissions in the transportation sector through subsidies for electric vehicles and moved the power sector toward renewable technologies.
Click here to read the full Washington Examiner article
According to the report, the majority of emissions reductions come from the power sector, with 83% of net reductions seen in the power sector. The electric power sector has grown from being the most emitting sector in 2016 to the third-highest emitting sector in the United States. The report attributes this change to coal being replaced by natural gas, which produces fewer emissions than coal.
The report also outlines that U.S. emissions are down more than 15% compared to 2005 levels, and emissions from the power sector are down 40% compared to levels in the same year.
