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Green News. |
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12 April 2007 Big Apple produces almost 1 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases |
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A recent study, was ordered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to assess the city's progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. It was conducted by the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability in order to obtain a real baseline figure to build on. The study found that the buildings, subways, buses, cars and decomposition of waste in America's most populous city produced a net emission of 58.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. The report said the city's emissions "are currently as much as those of Ireland or Portugal." The U.S. total was 7.26 billion metric tons for that year. The city has 2.7 percent of the country's population - 8.2 million of 300 million - and the average New York City resident contributes less than a third of the emissions generated by a typical American. This is largely due to the popularity of the city's mass transit system, which cuts down on car emissions, officials said. The operation of the city's hundreds of thousands of buildings - which consume electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and steam - contribute 79 percent of the city's emissions total. The study found that the city's focus on environmentally friendly initiatives including alternative fuel vehicles, energy efficient traffic lights and green buildings appears to have helped stabilize emissions rates in recent years. "Each one of these things really does make a difference, and they add up," Bloomberg said. Still, emissions were found to have increased by more than 8 percent between 1995 and 2005, the study found. |