Personal Impact*

Waste Diversion              Electricity               Zero-Carbon Energy               Solar PV               Transportation               Compliance

Climate Changers

Per-capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been on track to meet short term goals. Long term goals are more challenging. 

Connecticut residents remain on track to meet the 2020 goal for carbon dioxide emissions despite seeing rising per capita emissions from 2013 through 2015. The total average amount of greenhouse gases (GHG or CO2e)** emitted by each person in Connecticut from the combustion of fossil fuels decreased in 2017 (most recent data available) from 2016 (a reduction of 1.5 percent). Early in 2016, transportation (primarily the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel in vehicles) overtook power plants as the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. While Connecticut has made significant progress to reduce emissions of GHG, everyone will have to do more to achieve the 2030 and 2050 goals (see gauge image below).

The goals on the chart have been adjusted to account for the growth in population that is projected for 2030 and 2050. Many more people are projected to be living in Connecticut in 2030 and 2050, so that each resident will have to work that much harder to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2e) emissions if the statewide goal is to be met.  

Goal: State law sets two goals for greenhouse gas emissions: reduce statewide emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050. Governor Lamont’s Executive Order 3, set a mid-term reduction target of 45 percent below 2001 levels by 2030. The Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) will monitor progress and make recommendations to reduce state-wide GHG emissions.

The needle in the chart at right shows the current average annual per-capita reduction (0.21 metric tons) of carbon dioxide emissions over the previous 10 years. The per-capita reduction needed to achieve the 2050 goal is 0.27 metric tons per year..

_{Technical Note: *Personal Impact indicators illustrate trends in behavior or practices that can be expected to influence the condition of tomorrow's air, water, land and wildlife. **Emissions are reported in terms of carbon dioxide equivalence (CO2e).  While carbon dioxide is the primary GHG, emissions of other GHGs are expressed on the basis of their potential to contribute to global warming, relative to carbon dioxide’s potential. Values from previous reports have been updated based on more current data. *** For display purposes, the X axis on the chart is not to scale.}