WASHINGTON: US greenhouse gas emissions rose 6.2% from 2020 levels last year due to the use of coal electricity soaring 17% and the driver returned to the road after the first year of Pandemi Coronavirus, according to a report released on Monday.
The improvement of projected emissions shows the US is now further than the target set by the gift of Biden under the Paris climate agreement to cut emissions 50-52% below the level of 2005 in 2030.
US greenhouse gas emissions 17.4% below 2005, up From 22.2% below the 2005 level by 2020, according to the Rhodium group, a research organization.
This group analyzed the initial US emissions data for 2021, a year which should be marked by recovery after economic upheaval related to pandemic.
It was found that emissions growth exceeded the level of economic recovery, using estimates that GDP grew by 5.7% year-to-year.
Driving Emissions Growth is the transportation and electricity sector, which greenhouse gas emissions rose 10% and 6.6% respectively in 2021, both rebounded around 2/3 decreases from the level of 2019.
In the electricity sector, the price of high natural gas caused an increase 17% in coal generation – the first increase since 2014 – who drove emissions.
The US transportation sector, which contributed almost a third of US emissions was clean, saw the biggest emission surge in 2021, a year after experiencing a 15% decline by 2020 from the 2019 level – the biggest decrease in greenhouse gas emissions led by drastic drastic road trips due to Coronavirus.