The US (along with China) is one of the leading greenhouse gas emitting countries in the world across various metrics.
With this in mind, we’ve summarised and broken down various aspects of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States as a country in the guide below.
Summary – Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The United States
The United States’ Cumulative CO2 Emissions
The US currently leads all countries in the world for cumulative CO2 emissions
The United States’ Annual CO2 Emissions
The United States’ Per Capita CO2 Emissions
Which Greenhouse Gas Is Emitted The Most In The US? – % Share
Carbon dioxide makes up the highest % share of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US’ by a significant margin
Which Sectors/Industries Emit The Most Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The US?
The transportation and electricity sectors are responsible for the most emissions in the US
The sector and industry based emissions profile in the US may differ from other countries – we give an example in the guide below comparing the US and China’s agricultural emissions
CO2 Emissions In The United States By Energy/Fuel Source
Oil is the energy/fuel source that currently makes up most of the US’ CO2 emissions
Gas is second, and coal is third
Recent CO2 Emissions Trend In The United States
According to various reports and graphs showing the US’ recent annual CO2 emissions, annual CO2 emissions might have peaked around 2005 to 2007, and began a downward trend until around 2019/2020
Future Emissions Forecasts For The United States
Future emissions forecasts and projections might be not be considered definitive – they might be more general in nature.
However, we’ve included some general forecasts and projections for both the US’ annual emission levels, and also carbon budget, in the guide below
The United States’ Cumulative CO2 Emissions
Cumulative emissions are total emissions over time since a specific year
The US currently leads all countries in the world for cumulative CO2 emissions
The United States’ Annual CO2 Emissions
You can view a year by year CO2 emissions graph (measured in million tons) for the US, from the years 1960 to 2014, in the worlddata.info report
The United States’ Per Capita CO2 Emissions
Per capita emissions obviously take into consideration population size vs total emissions to get a per capita emissions rate
Which Greenhouse Gas Is Emitted The Most In The US? – % Share
Carbon dioxide makes up the highest % share of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US’ by a significant margin
Methane is second, with nitrous oxide in third
From epa.gov:
[In 2016, the greenhouse gases that made up the highest % share of all emissions were:]
[Carbon Dioxide is first at 81%]
[This is followed by Methane at 10%, Nitrous Oxide at 6%, and Fluorinated Gases at 3%]
Which Sectors/Industries Emit The Most Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The US?
Sectors & Industries That Emit The Most Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The transportation and electricity sectors are responsible for the most emissions in the US (both at 28%)
Industry is in third place (at 22%).
Read more about the sectors and industries that emit the most emissions in the US, and also in the world in this guide.
The US’ Sector/Industry Based Emissions vs Other Countries
The profile of the US’ sector or industry based emissions may differ to other countries’ profiles.
One example of this might be in agriculture when comparing the US’ agricultural industry to China’s
A significant % of China’s agricultural methane may come from rice cultivation
chinapower.csis.org notes though that (paraphrased) the US on the other hand is the world’s leading beef producer and most of it’s agricultural methane comes from beef
CO2 Emissions In The United States By Energy/Fuel Source
Oil makes up the largest % share of total CO2 emissions in the US
Gas is second, and coal is third
In Gigatonnes
[The different energy/fuel sources were responsible for the following amounts of CO2 emissions in the United States in 2016, when measured in Gt:]
[Oil was first at 2.31Gt C02]
[Gas was second at 1.53Gt C02]
[Coal was third at 1.38Gt C02]
[This was followed by Gas Flaring at 0.0459Gt C02, and Cement at 0.0407Gt C02]
– chinapower.csis.org
% Share
… In the US, oil is the main source of CO2 emissions (43.5 percent), followed by natural gas (28.7 percent) (chinapower.csis.org)
Recent CO2 Emissions Trend In The United States
Reports & Graphs Showing Recent Annual Emissions In The US
We looked at a few separate reports to see the US’ recent greenhouse gas emission trends
One epa.gov report shows the US Greenhouse Gas Emissions both by both ‘Gas’, and by ‘Sector’ – from 1990 to 2016
Page 12 of the U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Trends and Projections Report at fas.org also shows CO2 Emissions from 1990 to 2016
There’s also various graphs available online (published by different organisations) that show the US’ annual emissions over the last few decades.
What The US’ Recent Emissions Trends Might Show
What we observed from the various reports and graphs is:
Annual CO2 Emissions peaking around 2005 to 2007, and annual CO2 emissions then beginning a downward trend until around 2019/2020
On the epa.gov graph, we also noticed emissions in the Transportation and Electricity Generation sectors have both slightly decreased in the same time as well
Future Emissions Forecasts For The United States
Forecasts Are Not Definitive
Future emissions forecasts and projections might be not be considered as definitive.
They might be more general in nature.
There’s many reasons for this, with just some of them being variables such as what energy sources are used, the price of energy sources and fossil fuels, economic activity, government policy impacting energy, whether there is improvement or development in energy technology, whether there is improvement or development in mining and resource extraction practices, and more.
General Forecasts
– Annual Emissions
Several forecasts indicate that there could be two pathways the US might take
One would be emissions staying flat, or only slightly increasing on an annual basis
The other would be a notable emissions reduction by the year 2050 if the US switches to cleaner power
– Carbon Budget
One projection indicates that without bringing net emissions to zero, or without reducing emissions from the baseline level of emissions, the US could exceed the world’s carbon budget by themselves
Annual Emissions Projections
[There might be two estimated forecasts] from 2016 to 2050:
… a baseline forecast with the same activity as what is in place now would see CO2 emission levels slightly increase from 2016 to 2050
… a scenario in which a clean power plan is implemented would see CO2 emission levels decrease by up to 32% below 2005 levels (and decrease from 2016 levels)
– fas.org
Overall, projections have emissions staying flat for several decades (insideclimatenews.org)
Carbon Budget Projection
From insideclimatenews.org:
The US is looking unlikely to achieve a goal of bringing net emissions to zero in the second half of this century
Instead, the U.S. would almost single-handedly exhaust the whole world’s carbon budget by midcentury (2050) [and would add] more than 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year [in that time] …
At the baseline rate of emissions … the U.S. carbon footprint from this year to 2050 would add up to 179 billion tons—very close to the whole planet’s budget under those estimates
Read More About A Changing Climate
If you’re interested in reading more about a changing climate, we’ve outlined what might be some of the basic information to consider, and have also outlined what some of the potential solutions are that have generally been proposed to address it
Sources
1. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
2. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
3. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks
4. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44451.pdf
5. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06022018/eia-trump-greenhouse-gas-emissions-rise-climate-change-natural-gas-wind-solar-energy
6. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/index.php
7. https://www.worlddata.info/america/usa/energy-consumption.php
8. https://chinapower.csis.org/china-greenhouse-gas-emissions/
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