US CO2 Emissions Down in 2023
NYT reports that USA greenhouse gas emissions reduced last year. They open with a graph of U.S. electricity generation by source from 2005-2023 showing natural gas, nuclear, coal and renewable power generation. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/climate/us-carbon-emissions-2023-climate.html or https://archive.is/wNgDx
America's greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.9 percent in 2023, in large part because the burning of coal to produce electricity plummeted to its lowest level in half a century, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research firm.
The drop means that United States emissions have now fallen roughly 17.2 percent since 2005. There was a huge, anomalous dip in planet-warming pollution at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when large segments of the economy shut down, followed by a sharp rebound in the following two years once activity resumed. But over the longer term, America's emissions have been trending downward as power plants and cars have gotten cleaner.
Still, the decline in emissions to date hasn't been nearly steep enough to meet the nation's goals for trying to slow global warming. President Biden wants to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. To hit that goal, annual emissions would have to fall more than three times as fast for the rest of the decade as they did last year, the report found.
The researchers looked at planet-warming emissions generated by transportation, electricity, industry and buildings but did not include pollution from agriculture, which accounts for roughly 10 percent of the nation's greenhouse gases.
It then continues with more detail on different sectors of the economy and ends off with:
The United States is one of 26 countries around the world that have seen emissions decline in recent years even as they enjoy significant economic growth, a study last year found. That list also includes Brazil, Britain, Japan, much of the European Union and South Africa.
But globally, carbon dioxide emissions still soared to record levels last year, driven in large part by an increase in fossil fuel use in China, India and other fast-growing countries.
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