Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 reached their lowest levels since 1992, according to the final Environmental Protection Agency Greenhouse Gas Inventory released this month. As International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol recently stated,

“In the last 10 years, the emissions reductions in the United States has been the largest in the history of energy – almost 800 million tons – and this is a huge decline of emissions.”

Total U.S. GHG emissions fell by 35.6 million metric tons CO2 equivalent (MMT CO2Eq.), or 0.5 percent, from 2016 to 2017 – a steeper decline than was previously estimated in the agency’s draft report in February.

Since 2005 – the starting point for the Paris Climate Accords – total U.S. GHG emissions fell by 12 percent and total GHG emissions from fossil fuel combustion decreased nearly 15 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. oil and natural gas production increased more than 80 percent and 51 percent, respectively, and natural gas consumption increased 23 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Read the full post on EIDClimate.org.