US Risks Missing Emissions Goals Due to Reliance on Natural Gas
- BNEF says power industry emissions need to fall immediately
- Power industry needs to go ‘above and beyond’ in net-zero push
A gas flare above a field near Mentone, Texas.
Photographer: Bronte Wittpenn/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
America’s struggle to curb its emissions from natural gas threatens to undermine the Biden administration’s goal of having 100% carbon-free power generation by 2035, according to BloombergNEF.
US energy-related emissions peaked in 2007 and have since fallen at an average rate of 1.8% per year, BNEF said Wednesday in its New Energy Outlook for the US. But BNEF predicts that the annual pace of decarbonization will slow to 1.6% from now until 2050 in its base-case scenario — meaning only 40% of today’s emissions are cut by mid-century.