Report shows emissions increased during 2004
Fossil fuel combustion attributed 80 percent of the total increase of greenhouse gas emissions

Washington, DC— EPA’s latest report on greenhouse gas emissions, prepared for the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, indicated that the United States is making progress in reducing the emissions of some critical gases as it works toward cutting greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent by 2012. The report analyzes the sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

The report shows that both methane and nitrous oxide emissions have decreased from 1990 levels by 10 percent and two percent, respectively. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions during 2004 increased by 1.7 percent from the previous year. This increase, which occurred during a period of economic expansion, was due primarily to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption. Fossil fuel combustion was the largest source of emissions, accounting for 80 percent of the total.

This report is the latest in an annual set of reports that the United States submits to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.

The “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2004” report: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/emissions.