California’s greenhouse gas pollution is falling tremendously for the first time since the emission levels reached the all-time high in 2004. This fell below 1990Â levels, meeting an early goal years ahead of the predicted schedule. The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory today shows that the state of California emitted 429 million metric tons of gases polluting the climate in 2016. This puts Califonia well on track to reach its long-term goals.
Governor Edmund Brown hopes for California to cut its emissions even lower by 2030. The inventory was published on July 13th and had a lot of improvements such as carbon pollution dropping 13 percent since the 2004 peak. The per capita emissions are some of the lowest in the country, half as much as the national average.
In other words, the carbon pollution dropped 3% in between 2015 and 2016, which equals taking 2.4 million cars off the road! The transportation industry is also one of the largest contributors to the emissions and is making progress to continue its trend of using more efficient and cleaner fuels. This is great news for the health of the citizens, the state’s environment, and the economy as well.
