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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which represents more than 2,000 of the world's leading climate scientists, concluded that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." The primary anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) that contribute to this influence on climate include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and certain halogenated compounds.
To understand their role in emitting GHGs, 38 of the states have conducted their own emission inventories. U.S. EPA assists states by providing technical assistance, funding, and inventory guidance. States use their inventories to develop action plans to reduce their GHG emissions. Based on these action plans, states have implemented policies and programs to reduce GHG emissions. Thus, in many respects, emission inventories form the foundation for state actions to address climate change.
This section of the EPA Global Warming Site provides information on state GHG emission inventories, trends in emissions of GHGs and related pollutants, and methodological guidance. It is organized into the following subsections:
State GHG Inventories – Many states have developed their own GHG inventories, in partnership with EPA's State and Local Climate Change Program. Each inventory identifies the major sources of GHG emissions and presents annual emissions by sector (e.g., energy, agriculture, waste), by source (e.g., transportation emissions, manure management), and by gas (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane). In addition, EPA has developed state inventory summaries that reflect the most recent inventory guidance.
Energy CO2 Inventories – This sub-section provides estimates of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, calculated by using fuel consumption data from State Energy Data Reports compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration.
Inventory Guidance – Inventories cover a broad range of sources and gases. This sub-section provides access to guidance on methods and data for developing inventories of GHG emissions and sinks.
Additional information on greenhouse gases and related air pollutants at the state level is available on other EPA sites:
- National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) - Nonattainment Areas for Ozone and Particulate Matter. Many of the principal sources of conventional air pollutants are key sources of GHGs as well. EPA has developed National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for each of the "criteria" pollutants that contribute to urban smog and other air quality problems. Areas of the country where air pollution levels persistently exceed the NAAQS may be designated "nonattainment" areas. Such areas are classified according to the extent to which pollution levels exceed the standards; designations include marginal, moderate, serious, severe, and extreme. The pollutant that most commonly leads to nonattainment status is ozone. EPA's Green Book provides a status report on the areas of the United States that exceed the NAAQS for ozone and particulate matter (PM).
- SO2, NOx, and CO2 From Utilities - Actions targeting one type of pollutant often produce collateral reductions in another pollutant as a beneficial side effect. Efforts to control acid rain can produce a number of such "co-benefits" by reducing or offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. For example, certain NOx abatement technologies also reduce nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Moreover, by reducing acid rain we help protect our nation's forests, a major carbon sink, from further damage. In some respects, EPA's Acid Rain Program offers lessons that apply to greenhouse gas emission control, especially in the areas of energy efficiency, emissions abatement technologies, continuous emissions monitoring and tracking, and allowance trading systems. EPA's Emissions Scorecard 2001 provides electric utility emissions data for SO2, NOx, and CO2 as reported to EPA's Acid Rain Program. State-by-state summaries of utility-reported emissions data for 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1995-2000 are available for download in PDF, Microsoft Excel, or tab-delimited text formats.
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