MAINE MONITOR • June 16, 2024
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released its Tenth Biennial Report on Progress Toward Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals this week. The previous edition ran through 2019; this one runs through 2021. The data shows Maine has officially met one of its short-term climate goals — reducing emissions 10% below 1990 levels by 2020. In fact, we’ve been exceeding that goal since 2016. The big targets enshrined in state law still lie ahead: becoming carbon neutral by 2045, and reducing emissions at least 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050. To that end, the DEP says Maine is 91% of the way to its carbon neutrality goal. Home energy use is still the second-biggest source of emissions in Maine after transportation, which accounts for nearly half of Maine’s carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.