U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose 2 percent in 2013, with power plants contributing the most heat-trapping gases that scientists blame for driving climate change.
The bump reflects a number of factors, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday in its Greenhouse Gas Inventory report, such as people driving more and an uptick in industrial activity as the economy improved following the 2008 recession. A key driver was the increasing use of coal in 2013 in the power sector, which accounted for 31 percent of emissions, after years of decline.
Natural gas prices edged upward in 2013, boosting coal’s share of the power mix to 38.9 percent in 2013, compared with 37.4 percent the previous year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal is twice as carbon-dense as natural gas, so burning more of it adds to carbon dioxide emissions.
The increase in emissions poses challenges for the Obama administration’s climate ambitions ahead of December’s United Nations negotiations in Paris, where countries will look to strike a deal to govern emissions beyond 2020 in hopes of keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
Overall missions totaled 6,673 million metric tons in 2013, putting emissions 9 percent below 2005 levels. Late last month, the White House committed the U.S. to curbing economy-wide emissions at least 26 percent as part of the U.N. climate negotiation process.
Some environmental groups don’t think U.S. actions so far are sufficient. Environmental groups have chided the Obama administration for relying too heavily on potentially temporary emissions reductions through the shift from coal to natural gas in power generation, a concern the EPA data underscores.
The White House has touted progress in reducing emissions and contends that proposed EPA power-plant emissions limits, which aim to slash electricity emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, will push other nations to act.
