Data Source: Data Source: California Air Resources Board, California Greenhouse Gas Inventory - by Economic Sector and Activity
Analysis by CEC Economics
Highlights
- The transportation sector remains the largest-emitting sector in California. In 2022, its share of total emissions accounted for 38.7%, compared to 28% in the United States overall.7 The industrial sector—a very difficult to decarbonize sector—is the next largest-emitting sector, making up 22.6% of California’s GHG emissions in 2022.
- Light-duty vehicles, the largest-emitting subsector within transportation that consists of passenger cars, light-duty trucks and SUVs, and motorcycles, account for 27.2% of California’s emissions, a share that has remained relatively unchanged over time. The subsector’s emissions were 1.7% (-1.8 MMTCO2e) lower in 2022 than in 2021.
- The next-largest on-road transportation emissions sector—the heavy-duty vehicles subsector—has been the main contributor to the drop in GHG emissions from on-road vehicles since 2018. Even as pandemic restrictions were lifted, the heavy-duty vehicles subsector GHG emission did not rebound to the pre-pandemic level. There was also a sharp decline from 2021 to 2022 when emissions from heavy-duty vehicles decreased by 13.1% (-4.1 MMTCO2e). Compared to 2006, the year AB 32 became law, the sub-sector’s emissions have decreased by 37.8% (-16.7 MMTCO2e) and its share of total emissions decreased from 9.3% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2022.
7 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. Updated April 11, 2024. Accessed September 30, 2024. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks
Challenge
- Emissions from the electric power sector declined in 2022 for both in-state generation and imports relative to 2021. However, the percentage decrease was modest for in-state generation. From 2021 to 2022, emissions from in-state generation dropped by 0.8% (-0.3 MMTCO2e) to 42.3 MMTCO2e, while emissions from specified imports fell by 23.9% (-2.7 MMTCO2e) to 8.6 MMTCO2e. On the other hand, emissions from unspecified8 imports, transmission, and distribution rose by 4.1% (+0.3 MMTCO2e) to 8.9 MMTCO2e—surpassing emissions from specified imports for the first time. In 2022, California substituted unspecified imports from the NW grid with renewables from the SW grid, resulting in lower emissions from specified imports but higher unspecified imports.
8 Unspecified source of electricity means a source of electricity that is not a specified source at the time of entry into the transaction to procure the electricity. The difference between specified and unspecified source electricity is in the contract.
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