With the dramatic shift on climate policy announced recently by the federal government, many are wondering where we stand and where we are headed with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). There is good news!
As an industry, the U.S. building sector is on track to not only meet, but exceed, the voluntary emissions reductions agreed to under the Paris climate accord.
Specifically, U.S. reductions were targeted at 21-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2017 projections, we are on track to reduce by 24.5% in that time frame, and 30.4% by 2030.
This is in stark contrast to the EIA projections in 2005 for building energy consumption and GHG emissions that had predicted an increase of 52.4% by 2030.
Think about that – going from a projected increase of 50% to a decrease of 30%.
And according to the folks at Architecture 2030, who compiled much of the data for this post, consumption levels are dropping even though over 30 billion square feet have been added to our building stock. With an estimated $522 billion saved on energy costs so far, that’s money that can go back into funding green job creation, product development... and your summer vacation.
Keep up the great work everyone!