New Report Suggests U.S. Can Meet Its Climate Goals Without Congressional Action

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The Clean Power Plan is really important if the U.S. wants to meet its climate goals, the World Resources Institute says.

CREDIT: Shutterstock

Congressional inaction? That shouldn’t stop the United States from achieving its climate goals, a new report from the World Resources Institute says.

Through existing federal laws and state action, the United States could cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, the WRI said in a report released Wednesday. Ahead of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, to be held in Paris this December, the United States has pledged to cut its emissions by roughly 28 percent by 2025.

“The U.S. target is ambitious but achievable. The administration has already taken significant actions, but it will need to do more, assisted by American ingenuity and innovation that has helped find solutions to other great challenges,” Karl Hausker, senior fellow with the WRI’s US Climate Initiative, said in a press release.

The crux of the WRI analysis rests on the implementation of the Clean Power Plan, which is arguably President Obama’s most significant action on climate change. According to WRI’s analysis, implementing the plan as it currently stands, as well as strengthening greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and creating new standards for industry, would cut power sector emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The analysis offers three different scenarios. The first, described above, is considered the most achievable, but also offers the smallest reduction in emissions. By strengthening the Clean Power Plan — instead of just implementing it as it stands — and pushing for greater use of renewable energy throughout the power sector, the United States could see an even larger reduction: a 52 percent drop in power sector emissions by 2030.

In the most lofty scenario, WRI imagines a net reduction in the United State’s greenhouse gas emissions of 38 percent by 2030. To achieve this, the report says, the country would need to not only strengthen the Clean Power Plan, but greatly accelerate deployment of next-generation vehicle technology, like fuel cell electric vehicles, and implement policies that help slow the rate of personal travel. It would also need to accelerate the adoption of state efficiency savings targets meant to encourage the use of natural gas in residential homes and commercial buildings.

The power sector, the report finds, holds the largest opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Under the most achievable plan, 10 percent of the 26 percent reduction would come from the power sector, from a combination of the Clean Power Plan, stronger industrial emissions standards, and expanded residential and commercial efficiency programs. In that scenario, 70 to 75 percent of the potential reduction in greenhouse gas emissions comes from sectors in which the Obama administration has already taken some action.

Many of the actions suggested in the report, the WRI says, are measures that not only help cut greenhouse gas emissions, but offer an economic boost. A new natural-gas fired power plant, for example, is between 19 and 44 percent cheaper than a new coal-fired power plant. Revised fuel standards for cars could also offer vehicle owners savings over the long-run, thanks to direct savings on fuel, and externalities like reduced air pollution and reduced CO2 emissions.

Though the United States could reach its climate goals without the help of Republican-controlled Congress, which has shown itself unlikely to act on climate change, the report notes that more dramatic, long-term change would require legislation. Through climate legislation, the United States could potentially cut its emissions 40 to 42 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and 50 to 53 percent by 2040, but those cuts would require strong action from a Congress still locked in partisan debates over mankind’s role in climate change.

“Reductions of this magnitude would require greater action from the power sector than is likely possible using existing laws — more than double the reductions under the Clean Power Plan as proposed by 2030,” the report states. With the Clean Power Plan facing staunch opposition from Republicans in Congress and challenges in federal court, a strengthening of the law’s existing language seems unlikely in the current political environment.

But even as Congress stalls action on climate change, the international community seems to be ramping up its discussion of the issue ahead of the Paris conference. On Monday, UN chief Ban-Ki Moon called for “global action” on climate change this year, and WRI’s study comes just days before the next round of international climate discussions begin in Bonn, Germany.

As the largest global economy and the second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, the United States is expected to take a leading role in December’s international climate talks — a role that President Obama has publicly embraced.

“There is one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other. That is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate,” Obama said in a speech at the U.N. in 2014. “Nobody gets a pass. We will do our part, and we’ll help developing nations do theirs.”

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