US Emissions To Drop 9% In 2020, Putting Country Back On Track For Paris Commitment

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Greentech Media: The U.S. economy is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 9 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, BloombergNEF reported Thursday. It’s a sign of the impact that COVID-19 shutdowns and the ensuing recession have had on life in the U.S. When workers stayed home and the streets emptied out, it reduced emissions from transportation, which accounted for the largest decline at 4 percent of economywide emissions. The power sector drove another 2.8 percent decline, while reduced industrial activity lowered emissions by another 1.6 percent. The drastic reduction in planet-warming emissions did not result from concerted action on climate change, so much as an unprecedented and deadly pandemic. Without the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. would have released just 1 percent less carbon than in 2019, BNEF estimated. The mandated cessation of activities to stop the spread of coronavirus led to the additional reduction of 8 percent. Still, the absolute numbers make 2020 the “greenest” year on record, BNEF analysts Tom Rowlands-Rees and Melina Bartels noted. “The economic disruption of 2020 has inadvertently put the U.S. back on track to meet the commitments it made under the 2016 Paris Agreement, prior to President Trump taking the country out of that pact,” they wrote. The latest drop in greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t take into account the effects of the record wildfire season. “The fires burned enough plant matter to release the equivalent of 2.8 percent of 2019 economywide emissions,” the report says. “Accounting for that means 2020 nets out at a 6.4 percent decline in overall U.S. emissions.”