A new report released by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found greenhouse gas emission in the state declined by 23% from 2005 to 2020.
Commissioner Katrina Kessler says the COVID pandemic certainly had an effect on the declines but that they are already heading in that direction before the virus shut the world down.
“Emissions were already trending downward in 2018 and 2019,” Kessler said. “So we are cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see a downward trend.”
The current trend puts the state on track to reduce emissions 30% by 2025, which was the hope when state lawmakers passed the Next Generation Energy Act in 2007. However, until now, the state missed all of the benchmarks set in the bill.
The biggest driver in the downward trend has been a 58% reduction in electricity generation emissions.
While the numbers are a step in the right direction, Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold said they aren’t enough for the Walz administration to stop pushing for the clean energy by 2040 act.
The 2040 bill would require the state’s electric utilities to get all of their electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040, and it passed in the House late last week.
Still, Governor Tim Walz shared in a statement that he is proud fo the "bold steps" Minnesota has taken to reduce emissions.
“We are committed to protecting our communities, lakes, and environment from the impacts of climate change, and this report demonstrates that Minnesota is on track to reach our goal of reducing emissions 30 percent by 2025," Walz said. "We will continue this work through our Climate Action Framework, which provides a collaborative, bipartisan, and forward-looking plan to meet our goals and mitigate the impact of climate change for generations to come.”
When it comes to where the drop in emissions is mainly coming from, Kessler shared that the overall 23% drop is seen mostly in steep declines in transportation and electrical generation emissions.
Meanwhile agricultural emissions dropped by less than half a percent, and Kessler blames the energy spent helping the sector reduce its emissions.
“When we collectively look across the sectors when we invest and collaborate, we see reductions. So that’s what you’re seeing in the other sectors where we’ve actually spent a lot of energy,” Kessler said. “And I will say that we haven’t really brought the same level of energy and interest to the agricultural sector.”
Dairy farmer Pat Lunemann agreed, saying they need more support and better data from the state to help guide them for best practices.
“I say that we need to lean on science here to figure out how to deal with these weather extremes,” Lunemann said, adding that farmers need to be an active voice in the conversation too.
Related
Related
