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| US GHG emissions allocated to systems, and by materials and land management. The Land Sink, represented by the outer ring, offset the equivalent of 13% of total US anthropogenic emissions in 2006. The entire pie chart represents total US emissions in 2006; the inner portion of the pie chart represents net emissions. Greenfield development emissions are not included in the Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, and are therefore depicted outside of the pie chart. Source: EPA. Click to enlarge. |
GreenCarCongress - There is great potential to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions through materials and land management practices such as recycling, waste reduction, smart growth, and by reusing formerly contaminated sites including brownfields, according to a new report by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER).
The report uses a systems-based analysis—where each system represents and comprises all the parts of the economy working to fulfill a particular need—rather than the sector-based view consistent with international guidance that enables parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to compare the relative contribution of different emission sources and GHGs to climate change.
Based on this approach, the report finds that 42% of US greenhouse gas emissions are influenced by materials management policies. This includes the impacts from extracting raw materials, food processing, and manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of products. Another 16 to 20% of emissions are associated with land management policies. That includes emissions from passenger transportation, which represent the bulk of emissions in the land management system; construction; and from lost vegetation when greenfields are cleared for development.
In addition, the equivalent of 13% of US emissions is absorbed by soil and vegetation and can also be protected or enhanced through land management policies.
How we manage our materials and land—two of OSWER's three core areas—has a significant impact on US GHG emissions and sinks. People produce GHG emissions through a wide array of activities and across multiple locations, including the goods and services we consume, the homes in which we live, the buildings where we work, the transportation of ourselves and our goods from place to place, and the materials we discard. Meanwhile, energy consumption, materials use, municipal waste generation, and land development rates have all outpaced population growth over the last several decades in the United States, contributing to the impact of these activities. There are significant opportunities to reduce or avoid GHG emissions by improving our nation's materials and land management practices; these approaches complement and support end-of-pipe controls, sector-based and other mitigation strategies.
—"Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices"
EPA Report Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices