U.S. Needs To Cut Emissions By 57% To Meet Paris Agreement Goals

The United States needs to reduce its emissions by at least 57 percent by 2030 below 2005 levels to fulfill its share of the cuts consistent with the Paris Agreement, which the Biden Administration has rejoined, Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said in a new report on Thursday.

After rejoining the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, U.S. President Joe Biden and his Administration are preparing a new 2030 Paris Agreement target, or Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), expected to be announced in time for the Leader’s Climate Summit on Earth Day on April 22.

According to CAT’s analysis, the United States now needs to significantly boost its domestic action to reduce emissions and strengthen its own target consistent with the Paris Agreement goals to limit global warming. The U.S. should aim to reduce its national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 57-63 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, Climate Action Tracker said.

This target would also be consistent with the U.S. achieving a net-zero emission target by 2050, the analysis showed.

However, to make a fair contribution to the Paris Agreement, the U.S. will also need “to provide support to help other countries drive their own transitions to help shape global ambition on climate change,” CAT said.

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The analysis also examined President Biden’s policies for decarbonizing the U.S. electricity, transport, and building sectors. Decarbonizing the U.S. power sector by 2035 is consistent with a Paris Agreement pathway, but the Administration’s target for cutting emissions from the buildings sector by 50 percent by 2035 will not be compatible with the Paris Agreement, as more aggressive reductions would be needed.

In the transportation sector, which is the largest source of emissions in the U.S., “there is still a long way to go,” CAT said. A target compatible with the Paris Agreement would be 95-100 percent of sales of new light-duty vehicles in the U.S. to be zero-emissions at the national level by 2030. The U.S. doesn’t have any such targets or timelines, although President Biden has vowed to replace the almost 650,000-strong federal vehicle fleet with electric cars as part of his climate agenda.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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