COVID-19 reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the US by 10.3%

Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 10.3% in 2020 in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the administration of Donald Trump, who reneged on the Paris Climate Agreement, to paradoxically meet the objectives it set without seeking it.

According to a report by the Rhodium Group, based in New York, emissions from the industry and the energy sector in the United States experienced an annual reduction that was not seen since World War II due to the halt in economic activity that the coronavirus has forced.

Emissions from the transport sector, the country’s main emitter of greenhouse gases, fell in 2020 by 14.7% compared to the previous year, with sharp falls in road and air transport.

The electricity sector experienced a reduction in emissions of more than 10%, with a significant decrease in energy production with coal and the greater role of natural gas, which generates less carbon dioxide, but emits methane, another greenhouse gas.

U.S. heavy industry lowered its emissions by 7%, while those linked to the energy consumption of large buildings decreased by 6.2% due to the measures of confinement and closure of offices and businesses due to the pandemic.

The text considers that, despite the reduction, if the United States does not take urgent measures to return to the path of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the emission rate will return to previous levels, especially with the recovery in the transport sector and the return to the automobile, one of the main responsible for emissions.

Greenhouse gas emissions have been reducing in the United States since 2005 thanks to the transition of the energy industry to clean sources alternative to coal, despite the fact that Trump insisted since coming to power in 2017 on reviving this sector, implanted in rural areas where he maintained a large fishing ground of votes.

Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the historic Paris Agreement, which he joined with almost two hundred governments during the presidency of Barack Obama, and despite this, and provisionally, the country has met the objectives set due to the economic stoppage of the pandemic.

Obama pledged to reduce emissions by 17 percent from 2005 in 2020, but U.S. industry has cut its emissions by 21.5 percent from the pandemic compared to 2005.

However, this data does not take into account that the United States has eliminated many environmental regulations during the Trump presidency and that, once economic activity recovers, emissions will increase again.

In addition, those data do not contemplate the extent of fires on the West Coast, which have increased carbon dioxide emissions in the last year.

Source: Levante