Oil and gas production reports to the EPA under the GHG Emissions Reporting Program and contributes to the key industry sector, accounting for 23% of emissions and including leaks from industrial processes or facilities. The Epa reports that methane accounts for about 30% of oil and gas production emissions; However, recent studies based on new satellite data have shown that the EPA underestimates methane emissions from oil and gas production by 50 or 60 percent. Methane is often considered a super pollutant, and simply finding and repairing methane leaks in oil and gas plants could reduce emissions equivalent to taking 140 million gasoline-powered cars off the road. The Biden administration has begun to address this problem by proposing $16 billion to reduce methane pollution from orphan facilities. Methane emissions from existing oil and gas activities and the plastics industry can also be reduced through legislation, as outlined in a bill recently introduced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. However, several Trump-era regulatory setbacks in this sector also need to be addressed, summarized below:[1] NDCs reflect the domestic mitigation measures a party will take to reduce its domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Together, all submitted NDCs represent global efforts to combat climate change. Approximately 40 per cent of Parties, which account for approximately 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, have submitted a new or updated NDC by 31 December 2020, and the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat analysed these submissions in its first synthesis report on NDCs in February 2021. This first report is a valuable resource for measuring Parties` climate commitments and provides information on the ambition of other Parties in presenting their expected NDCs. As several Parties have not yet submitted new or updated NDCs, an updated synthesis report will be published in the run-up to COP 26.
A number of factors influence the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, including economic activity, population, consumption patterns, energy prices, land use and technology. There are several ways to track these shows, for example. B by directly measuring emissions, calculating emissions based on the amount of fuel people burn, and estimating other activities and associated emissions. The EPA has two key programs that provide data on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States: the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sink Inventory and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. For more information on these programs, see «Sources of data on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.» The Kyoto Protocol, a landmark environmental treaty adopted at COP3 in Japan in 1997, represents the first time that countries have agreed on country-specific emission reduction targets that are legally mandated. The protocol, which only entered into force in 2005, set binding emission reduction targets only for developed countries, based on the assumption that they were responsible for most of the Earth`s high greenhouse gas emissions. The United States first signed the agreement, but never ratified it; President George W. Bush argued that the deal would hurt the U.S. economy because it would not include developing countries like China and India. Without the participation of these three countries, the effectiveness of the treaty has proven to be limited, as its objectives cover only a small fraction of total global emissions. Under the agreement, the United States promised to reduce its emissions by about 25 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels.
However, according to analysts, the country is only on track to achieve a reduction of about 17%. In fact, research clearly shows that the costs of climate inaction far outweigh the costs of reducing carbon pollution. A recent study suggests that if the United States fails to meet its Paris climate goals, it could cost the economy up to $6 trillion in the coming decades. A global failure to meet the NDCs currently set out in the agreement could reduce global GDP by more than 25% by the end of the century. At the same time, another study estimates that meeting – or even exceeding – the Paris targets through infrastructure investments in clean energy and energy efficiency could have huge global benefits – around $19 trillion. Total emissions increased by 1.8% between 1990 and 2019, but are down 12% from the peak in 2007. In 2019, the United States emitted 6.6 billion tons of greenhouse gases (CO2e). Carbon dioxide accounted for the highest percentage of greenhouse gases (80%), followed by methane (10%), nitrous oxide (7%) and other greenhouse gases (3%).
Total U.S. emissions for 2019 were 6,558 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent and net emissions, including sinks, were 5,769 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Greenhouse gases are emitted by all sectors of the economy, including electricity (25% of the total), transportation (29%), industry (23%), residential and commercial (13%) and agriculture (10%). Currently, 197 countries – every nation on earth, the last signatory being war-torn Syria – have adopted the Paris Agreement. Of these, 179 have solidified their climate proposals with formal approval – including the US for now. The only major emitting countries that have not yet officially joined the deal are Russia, Turkey and Iran. Today, President Biden announced a commitment to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. This commitment will be part of the United States` «Nationally Determined Contribution» (NDC) to the Paris Climate Agreement. The NDC will commit the United States to a concrete and voluntary goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and set out national climate measures to achieve this goal. The upcoming UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, UK, in November and is the first major test of the Paris Agreement`s mandate to make national climate action increasingly ambitious among the parties (the countries that have signed the Paris Agreement). To date, most major GHG emitters have not met this mandate. The Biden administration has declared its intention to «move towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible,» while encouraging other major emitting parties to do the same.
But to what extent is this goal achievable? In this article, I review the current and expected NDCs of the major emitting parties and the regulatory hurdles the Biden administration faces in meeting an ambitious commitment under the Paris Agreement. Data for this indicator are from the EPA`s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks in the United States: 1990-2019. This report is available online at www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks. The calculations in Figure 3 are based on GDP and population data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census, respectively. The transportation sector, which includes all movements of people and goods by vehicle, generates the largest share of GHG emissions in the United States (29%). The main sources of transport-related greenhouse gases are passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
The Biden administration`s $2 trillion U.S. jobs plan could help accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and has proposed $174 billion for electric vehicle initiatives and $85 billion to modernize and expand access to public transit. .