The drop was big, but emissions will need to fall three times as fast for the rest of the decade if the country wants to meet its climate goals.

I literally just today learned that the “Biden is destroying the climate, we emitted more greenhouse gas than ever before in 2023” talking point isn’t even “not the whole story” – it’s actually the complete opposite of what actually happened.

Not only are we still way below the high we set in 2005, the rate is still steadily going down. Maybe the people saying this mean the world as a whole set a record, and they’re blaming the entire world’s emissions on Biden? I have no idea.

Anyway, this is what actually happened.

Edit: Hang on, I am wrong or partly wrong. The talking-point version is that US set a record for fossil fuel extraction, not emissions, which is completely accurate and also still terrifying. So fair play I guess.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    America’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.9 percent in 2023, in large part because the burning of coal to produce electricity plummeted to its lowest level in half a century, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research firm.

    The researchers looked at planet-warming emissions generated by transportation, electricity, industry and buildings but did not include pollution from agriculture, which accounts for roughly 10 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gases.

    To speed action on climate change, Congress in 2022 approved a record amount of federal money for low-emissions technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear reactors, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuels.

    Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a regulation that would, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane from hundreds of thousands of existing wells.

    And on Friday, the Department of Energy announced a conditional $189 million loan guarantee to LongPath Technologies, which plans to mount lasers on giant towers to monitor methane leaks at oil and gas fields across the country.

    But globally, carbon dioxide emissions still soared to record levels last year, driven in large part by an increase in fossil fuel use in China, India and other fast-growing countries.

    The original article contains 834 words, the summary contains 206 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!