PROVIDENCE – A three-year lag time in data collection and public reporting makes it difficult for state agencies and environmental advocates to measure in real time where Rhode Island stands as it relates to carbon reductions, according to a Friday report issued by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, which found that the state was able to meet one of its hallmark targets mandated in the 2021 Act on Climate.
The primary tool for assessing progress toward the Act on Climate, the annual analysis of Rhode Island’s greenhouse output, shows that Rhode Island produced 9.24 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020, reducing atmospheric emissions by 20.1% compared with 1990 levels, more than twice the 10% target. Overall emissions dropped 6.5% between 2019 and 2020.
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Most emissions are still sourced from the transportation, electricity consumption and residential heating sectors, accounting for about 78% of the total. The report points out that part of the overall reduction was due to reduced transportation activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that year. Transportation emissions in 2020 fell by 11.6% from 2019 levels, mainly due to a sharp decline in air travel and pandemic restrictions.
DEM said the 2021 inventory, expected in fall of 2024, will likely show “the absence of pandemic-related social and economic restrictions in 2021″ led to “a rebound in emissions” reported for that year.
“Although the pandemic-related emissions reductions should not be interpreted as an indicator of future emissions reductions, they can indicate how R.I.’s air quality could benefit from the switch to cleaner vehicles,” DEM said.
Signed into law by Gov. Daniel J. McKee in 2021, the Act on Climate law seeks to bring the state to net-zero emissions by 2050.
“Rhode Island’s achievement of the Act on Climate’s 2020 emissions reduction mandate demonstrates what can be achieved through emissions reductions, particularly in the transportation sector,” McKee said in a Friday statement. “At the same time, the 2020 inventory also underscores the continued work that is necessary through our collective climate action efforts to create a future of net-zero [greenhouse gas] emissions.”
DEM Director Terry Gray said the latest report is a positive step but cautioned that “both the heating and transportation sectors remain large sources of [greenhouse gas] emissions and primary drivers of climate change.”
“It is critical that we remain focused on these sectors and continue our investments in renewable energy to meet our mandated emissions reductions for the future health and prosperity of the state,” he said.
DEM also noted that Rhode Island continues to lose natural lands and forestry to development. The state’s forests removed 15.7% less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in 2020 than in 1990, according to the summary.
The agency hopes future methodology changes will improve the reporting process, which now relies on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “State Inventory Tool,” creating a time lag that “affects the timing of DEM’s annual emissions inventories.”
DEM said it “remains committed to improving the three-year lag time between the current year and the inventory year.”
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
