Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities

Published

February 2, 2021

Author(s)

Kimberly Mueller, Kevin R. Gurney, Thomas Lauvaux, Geoffrey Roest, Jianming Liang, Yang Song

Abstract

Cities dominate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are emerging as climate mitigation leaders. Many have generated self-reported GHG emission inventories (SRIs) but their accuracy and value to emissions mitigation policymaking is untested. The Vulcan carbon dioxide emissions data product, consistent with atmospheric measurements, is compared to 48 U.S. city SRIs. We find a mean relative difference (RD) of +18.5% (Vulcan > SRIs) with 77% of cities reporting fewer emissions by, on average, 31.0%. Were this bias extrapolated to all U.S. cities, the underestimation would be 25% larger than the annual emissions of California. Differences are due to SRI omission of particular fuels and source types and different quantification approaches to transportation sources. These results raise serious concerns as cities use SRIs to plan and assess GHG emissions mitigation progress.

Citation

Science

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Citation

Mueller, K. , Gurney, K. , Lauvaux, T. , Roest, G. , Liang, J. and Song, Y. (2021), Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities, Science, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20871-0 (Accessed April 3, 2025)