Just as the “new-and-improved” GC3 begins an intensive period of work in subcommittees and working groups, CT DEEP has released the greenhouse gas inventory for 2017.
This latest comprehensive look at how the state is measuring up to its mandated climate goals is both hopeful and sobering. Hopeful – because we are on track to achieve the 2020 goal of a 10% reduction in economy-wide emissions below 1990 levels. Sobering – because the 2017 figures just represent a recovery from significant emissions increases during 2013-2015 and a return to the lower levels already achieved earlier in the decade.
And still more sobering because there’s so much work still to be done. Key sectors of the economy – most notably transportation – have seen little, if any, improvement since 1990. Transportation emissions were essentially the same in 2017 as in 1990.
So our ongoing work on transportation investments intersects with the GC3’s revived charge to monitor the implementation of measures to achieve the mandated goals. We need stable funding for transportation, and we need to invest that funding in ways that reduce transportation emissions, especially in communities that have suffered the most from toxic pollution.
Author: Aisha K. Staggers
Provider of "proactive and strategic communications" with a solid background in print and digital journalism. Communications Director of Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs.