U.S. EPA Continues to Get Significant Greenhouse Gas Reductions through Voluntary Partnership Programs

Kathleen Hogan, Director, Climate Protection Partnerships Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - www.epa.gov/cppd

For more than a decade, the United States has made significant progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. President Bush announced a strategy in 2002 to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012. The Administration is strengthening and expanding EPA's voluntary programs as a key strategy for achieving the intensity reduction goal. EPA's voluntary partnership programs address market barriers, accelerate the adoption of proven technologies and practices, and deliver substantial emissions reductions.

EPA's voluntary efforts advance a broad set of practices and technologies that significantly reduce emissions of the major greenhouse gases from key sources. The partnership programs:

	Span the major sectors of the U.S. economy, encompassing generation and use of energy in the commercial, residential, industrial, and transportation sectors.
	Address the most potent of greenhouse gases emitted from industrial processes and waste management.
	Engage and challenge businesses, public institutions, and households to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other climate friendly technologies.
	Provide objective information, technical assistance, and recognition for environmental leadership to organizations that are taking measurable steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

With sustained efforts, EPA and its partners will deliver a significant portion of the emissions reductions required to meet the President's goal for 2012. Established programs have already demonstrated that significant accomplishments can be achieved with well-designed partnership programs. EPA's public-private partnerships focus on the following opportunities to stimulate action:

Energy Efficiency
EPA has encouraged greater investment in energy efficiency where cost effective since the early 1990s through the ENERGY STAR program. Energy efficiency - obtaining the identical services or output such as heating, cooling, and lighting for less energy input - provides the following benefits:

	Addresses the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from energy generation and use, which represent 85 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
	Offers significant cost savings to businesses, public institutions, and consumers as many households, businesses, and public institutions can save 20 to 30 percent on their energy bills by making cost-effective investments in energy-efficient products and services.
	Provides a low-cost resource for improving electricity reliability
	Helps reduce demand for natural gas and lower natural gas prices.

The ENERGY STAR program has grown into a broad partnership with manufacturers, retailers, home builders, utilities, states, and others helping businesses, public institutions, and households invest in energy efficiency.

Clean Energy Supply
EPA is collaborating with its partners to lower transaction costs and expand the use of technologies that significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation. In fulfillment of the National Energy Policy, EPA is promoting combined heat and power as well as the purchase of renewable sources of energy so that these technologies can play larger roles in the U.S. energy mix.

Corporate Commitments
EPA has offered leading organizations the opportunity to be Climate Leaders since 2002. The Climate Leaders partners take aggressive steps to reduce their impacts on the global environment. They inventory their greenhouse gas emissions, set aggressive long-term reduction goals, report their progress to EPA, and receive recognition for their achievements. Climate Leaders partners are playing an important part in helping the country reach its greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal of 18 percent by 2012.

State and Local Clean Energy Programs
EPA is providing technical assistance to state agencies to help them assess the environmental and economic benefits of clean energy policies and programs, including those that advance energy efficiency, combined heat and power, and renewable sources of energy.

Methane Programs
Methane is not only a potent greenhouse gas, but is also a much soughtafter clean fuel. When methane emissions can be captured, the recovered methane represents a valuable energy source that can be used or sold. The natural gas, coal, and landfill gas development industries are working with EPA through partnership and outreach programs to capture methane wherever cost effective.

High GWP Gas Programs
Hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are potent greenhouse gases, meaning they have a greater ability to trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere on a molecule per molecule basis relative to CO2; and some of these gases persist in the environment for thousands of years. Various U.S. industries are working with EPA to avoid significant accumulation of long-lived chemicals in the atmosphere. These voluntary programs accelerate the development and implementation of low-emitting technologies and help companies use alternative chemicals where technically feasible and cost effective.

Results for 2004 and 2005
The results from these partnership efforts, which are just some of the Agency's programmes, have been steady and strong for over a decade, with 2004 delivering significant savings. Voluntary climate partnerships prevented 57 million metric tons (in MMTCE ) of greenhouse gas emissions in 2004, an increase from 48 million in 2003. Through the ENERGY STAR program, Americans prevented the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 20 million vehicles, saved about 4 percent of the total U.S. electricity demand, and saved around $10 billion on their energy bills. In addition, the domestic methane programs exceeded their emissions reduction goals in 2004 and kept national methane emissions to well below 1990 levels.

Greater results are expected in 2005, as EPA has undertaken a number of new efforts to build and expand the breadth of the partnership programs. Key accomplishments in 2005 include the following:

	New ENERGY STAR qualified products such as external power supplies have been introduced
	EPA, along with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), launched the Partnerships for Home Energy Efficiency, to bring greater energy efficiency to the U.S. housing market with the goal of saving 10 percent or more on home energy bills over the next decade.
	To encourage businesses and organizations to improve building energy efficiency across the country by 10 percent or more, EPA launched a new national ENERGY STAR Building Challenge with key business associations.
	EPA finalized the first in a series of energy performance indicators for industrial sectors. This was for the automobile manufacturing industry.
	The Climate Leaders program has grown to 74 companies and a total of 38 Partners have announced corporate-wide greenhouse gas reduction goals. The Climate Leaders Partners represent 8 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
	The Green Power Partnership grew to 600 partner organizations purchasing more than 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually, enough to power 300,000 American homes each year.
	To help states assess and adopt clean energy policies and deploy programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and increase economic development, EPA introduced the new State Clean Energy-Environment Partnership Program.

The sustained efforts of voluntary partnership programs are making a sizeable difference in saving energy, reducing emissions, and protecting our environment.

For more information on U.S. EPA's climate partnership programs, please visit: www.epa.gov/cppd

For more information: Maria Vargas, vargas.maria@epa.gov