7.1: Greenhouse Gas
Reduce Greenhouse Gas Pollution Other Information:
Executive Order 13514 requires Federal agencies to measure, report, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from agency
operations to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and cut costs. In 2010, President Obama announced that the Federal Government
will reduce its direct greenhouse gas emissions, such as those from fuels and building energy use, by 28 percent by 2020 and
will reduce its indirect greenhouse gas emissions, such as those from employee business travel and employee commuting, by
13 percent by 2020. By meeting these two goals, the Federal Government could save up to $11 billion in energy costs over the
next decade and eliminate the equivalent of 235 million barrels of oil from its own activities. The Federal Government’s progress
towards meeting the GHG targets will be accomplished by holding agencies accountable for achieving related statutory and executive
order goals and the individual targets they identified in their annual Sustainability Plans, through the OMB scorecard process,
and monitoring of agency comprehensive GHG inventories on an annual basis beginning in January 2011. The President directed
CEQ to issue guidance for GHG accounting and reporting for Federal agencies. The Final Federal Guidance for Greenhouse Gas
Accounting and Reporting can be found here. In April 2011, the White House Council on Environmental Quality released the first-ever
comprehensive Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory for the Federal Government, which accounts for the GHG emissions associated
with the Federal Government’s operations in 2010. The Federal Government's GHG inventory for 2010 was 66.4 metric tons of
carbon dioxide emissions (MMTCO2e). The 2010 GHG inventory shows that the Federal Government successfully reduced GHG pollution
by 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions (MMTCO2e) since its 2008 baseline, and is on track to meeting the 2020
Federal GHG pollution reduction target. Federal agency and department FY 2010 GHG emissions summaries can be found at http://www.data.gov/raw/4769.
Indicator(s):
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