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Global Warming Program Reports
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Executive Summary
The early effects of
global warming are already evident across the United States and worldwide. The
past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest for the contiguous United States,
a streak unprecedented in the historical record. If emissions are left
unchecked, temperatures will continue to rise, and the effects of global warming
will become more severe. This report
examines trends in U.S.
global warming pollution nationally and by state and concludes that the failure
to limit emissions nationwide has allowed global warming pollution to grow
out of control.
In February 2007,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body
charged with assessing the scientific record on global warming, found that the
evidence of global warming is “unequivocal” and concluded, with more than 90
percent certainty, that human activities are responsible for most of the
observed rise in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century. If current
trends in emissions continue, the IPCC projects that temperatures will increase
anywhere from an additional 1.1° to 6.4°C (2° to 11.5°F). The consequences of this
increase in global temperatures will vary from place to place but will include
sea level rise, heat waves, drought, increasingly intense tropical storms, loss
of plant and animal species, decreased crop yields, decreased water availability,
and the spread of infectious diseases.
The United States is
the largest worldwide contributor to global warming, releasing almost a quarter
of the world’s carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant. Power plants, cars, and light trucks are the largest
U.S.
sources of carbon dioxide.
Existing technology
could substantially reduce global warming pollution by making power plants and
factories more efficient, making cars go farther on a gallon of gasoline, and shifting
the country to clean, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government
so far has rejected mandatory limits on global warming pollution, allowing
carbon dioxide emissions to rise unabated.
Using the most
recent state fossil fuel consumption data from the Department of
Energy, this report
examines trends in carbon dioxide emissions nationally and by state for the 15
years spanning 1990 to 2004. Our major findings include the following:
Carbon
dioxide pollution is on the rise.
- Carbon dioxide pollution from
fossil fuel consumption is on the rise in the United States, increasing by
18 percent between 1990 and 2004.
- Electric power plants and the
transportation
sector—particularly cars and light trucks—drove the
increase in emissions nationwide. Between 1990 and
2004,
U.S.
carbon dioxide emissions from the electric power sector jumped
by 28 percent and from the transportation
sector
by almost a quarter (23 percent).
- Carbon dioxide emissions increased
the most in the Southeast, Great Lakes/Midwest,
and Gulf South regions over the 15 year period. The
states experiencing the largest absolute increases
in
carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2004 are Texas,
Florida, Illinois,
North Carolina, and Georgia.
The
electric power sector was the primary factor driving the increase in U.S.
carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2004.
- The electric power sector
accounted for more than half (55 percent) of the U.S. emissions
increase. Rising electricity demand from residential, commercial and industrial
consumers spurred this rapid increase in carbon dioxide emissions from the
electric power sector.
- Coal-fired power plants accounted
for most of the increase in carbon dioxide
emissions
from the electric power sector.
Between
1990 and 2004, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired
power plants increased by a quarter, accounting
for
three-fourths of the emissions increase in the electric
power sector and 42 percent of the nation’s overall
increase in carbon dioxide emissions.
- The states that experienced the
largest absolute increases in carbon dioxide
emissions
from coal-fired power plants between 1990 and 2004 are Illinois,
Texas, Missouri,
North Carolina, and Indiana.
- Between 1990 and 2004, U.S.
carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas consumption in
the electric power sector increased by more than two thirds
(almost 70 percent), accounting for 13 percent of
the
nation’s overall increase in carbon dioxide emissions.
- The states that experienced the
largest absolute increases in carbon dioxide
emissions
from natural gas-fired power plants between 1990 and 2004 are Florida, Texas, Arizona, California,
and Nevada.
The
transportation sector also played a major role in driving up U.S. carbon dioxide emissions
between 1990 and 2004.
- The transportation sector
accounted for 40 percent of the nation’s overall
increase in carbon dioxide emissions during this
time
period.
- Cars and light trucks were
responsible for most of the increase in carbon
dioxide emissions from the transportation sector. Between 1990 and 2004,
carbon dioxide emissions from motor gasoline
consumption
increased by almost a quarter (22 percent), accounting
for more than half of the emissions increase in the transportation
sector.
- The states with the largest
absolute increases in carbon dioxide emissions
from
motor gasoline consumption between 1990 and 2004 include Texas, Florida, California, Georgia,
and Arizona.
The longer we wait
to reduce global warming pollution, the harder the task will be in the future.
Many U.S.
states have started taking important steps to cut global warming pollution
within their borders, but the global warming problem also demands a national solution.
Key components of an action plan to cut global warming pollution include:
- Establishing mandatory,
science-based limits on global warming pollution
that reduce emissions from today’s levels by the end of the decade,
by at least 15-20 percent by 2020, and by at least
80 percent by 2050.
- Reducing our dependence on fossil
fuels by making our homes and businesses more energy
efficient, making our cars and SUVs go farther on a gallon of
gasoline,
and generating more electricity from renewable energy sources.
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