FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Detect and Reduce Climate Super Pollutants

Half of immediately’s local weather change is attributable to tremendous pollutant greenhouse gases—together with methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and nitrous oxide (N₂O)—which can be way more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂). Slashing emissions of those super-pollutants is the quickest option to sort out local weather change and a essential complement to lowering carbon dioxide—whereas creating good-paying clear vitality jobs, stopping tons of of hundreds of deaths yearly because of respiratory sicknesses, and boosting meals safety. 

Since Day One in workplace, President Biden has taken historic motion to dramatically cut back U.S. and world tremendous pollutant emissions. For instance, domestically the Biden-Harris administration is implementing the November 2021 U.S. Methane Motion Plan that takes a whole-of-government method to chop shopper prices, shield staff and communities, keep and create high-quality, union-friendly jobs, and promote U.S. innovation and manufacturing of essential new applied sciences important to tackling the local weather disaster.

Globally, President Biden has rallied the world to sort out methane emissions via the World Methane Pledge to cut back world methane emissions 30 % by 2030, and he signed the U.S. ratification of the Kigali Modification, a world settlement to part down super-polluting HFCs and keep away from as much as 0.5 °C of world warming by 2100. In complete, this administration has taken actions that may cut back tremendous pollution by practically 300 megatons per yr domestically by 2030, equal to 70 million gasoline-powered vehicles.

In the meantime, many Republicans in Congress proceed to disclaim the very existence of local weather change and stay dedicated to repealing the President’s Inflation Discount Act—the largest local weather funding in historical past—which might put good-paying jobs in jeopardy and undermine the well being and security of their very own constituents.

As we speak the Biden-Harris Administration is internet hosting a White Home Tremendous Pollution Summit with U.S. officers, firms, environmental organizations, unions, philanthropies, and worldwide companions to announce new home and worldwide actions to sort out local weather tremendous pollution and have fun successes in lowering tremendous pollution so far, together with:

New Efforts to Advance Detection and Reporting of Tremendous Pollution

• The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s World Monitoring Lab and United Airways introduced an settlement on a pioneering collaboration that may use business plane to considerably improve monitoring of local weather pollution, together with carbon dioxide and methane, and carbon monoxide and water vapor, which is able to enhance understanding of greenhouse gasoline emissions. The Cooperative Analysis and Improvement Settlement will support within the growth of a brand new Business Plane Greenhouse Gasoline Monitoring Program throughout the World Monitoring Laboratory.

• The State Division and the Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA) dedicated to deploy 10 state-of-the-art monitoring methods to U.S. embassies and consulates to measure ozone and its precursors. The info from these sensors might be used to enhance the capabilities of local weather and air high quality satellites and develop a brand new tropospheric ozone forecasting mannequin.

• Carbon Mapper – a non-profit that leads a public-private partnership—together with the Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA), Planet Labs PBC, and different companions—introduced the upcoming launch of the primary Carbon Mapper Coalition satellite tv for pc, additional increasing instruments to watch methane emissions throughout all sectors. The Carbon Mapper Coalition satellites, that are designed to detect methane super-emitters at facility-scale from area, will construct on U.S. non-public sector and non-profit group detection functionality with the launch of MethaneSAT by the Environmental Protection Fund earlier this yr. On the Summit, the Bezos Earth Fund introduced $10 million in new funding to help MethaneSAT to proceed to advance satellite-based detection of methane emissions.

New Trade Management to Scale back Nitrous Oxide Emissions

• Main U.S. firms showcased new actions that, by early 2025, will cut back total U.S. industrial emissions of nitrous oxide by over 50% since 2020.
  • Ascend Efficiency Supplies, the most important producer of adipic acid in the USA, introduced the set up of a further thermal discount unit that has nearly eradicated N2O emissions at their Florida facility.
  • ClimeCo, a world sustainability firm and the most important developer of commercial N2O abatement initiatives in the USA, introduced three new emissions discount initiatives that may come on-line by early 2025 and cut back nitrous oxide emissions on the three amenities by roughly 95%.  

New Initiatives to Scale back Home Methane Emissions

• As a key a part of the Environmental Safety Company (EPA)’s new Clear Air Act guidelines to cut back methane emissions from oil and pure gasoline operations by practically 80% in comparison with emissions with out the rule, the Tremendous Emitter Program leverages knowledge collected by EPA-certified third-party specialists utilizing accredited distant sensing applied sciences (equivalent to satellites) to seek out giant methane leaks and releases and notify house owners and operators. As soon as notified, house owners and operators should examine to seek out the supply of the tremendous emitter occasion, report the outcomes of that investigation to EPA, and restore any leaks or releases lined by an EPA customary. To maintain the general public knowledgeable, EPA will make the super-emitter knowledge publicly out there on a well timed foundation. EPA has begun accepting functions to grow to be licensed third-party notifiers, and is working with numerous organizations which can be fascinated about creating functions.

• EPA introduced it is going to subject a proposed rule to replace its Clear Air Act emission requirements for brand new and current municipal stable waste landfills in 2025 to chop and different dangerous landfill gasoline emissions, together with via incorporating new applied sciences that may higher measure and deal with emissions and cut back dangerous air air pollution in frontline communities.

New Initiatives to Scale back World Methane Emissions

• Constructing on three years of worldwide management on integrating methane discount into growth programming, the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) has shaped new partnerships with 9 non-public firms to deal with meals loss and waste underneath its Meals Loss and Waste Accelerator launched final yr. Meals loss and waste contributes 8-10 % of world greenhouse gasoline emissions, together with extremely poisonous methane emissions when discarded or leftover meals decomposes. USAID will work with 9 companies in Kenya, Nepal, and Tanzania over the following two years to upcycle or in any other case stop over 85,000 metric tons of meals loss via practices like modern meals processing and storage and improved post-harvest dealing with. This may create greater than 600 jobs, no less than 45 % of which might be held by girls, and brings the overall variety of public-private partnerships underneath the Accelerator to 12.

• A consortium of philanthropies – represented by the Excessive Tide Basis – introduced greater than $300 million to help the World Methane Hub, which is able to catalyze billions of {dollars} in essential challenge investments and might be devoted to lowering methane emissions throughout key sectors, with an emphasis on low- and middle-income nations.  The World Methane Hub was established by philanthropies alongside the launch of the World Methane Pledge and has already helped catalyze over $10 billion in methane lowering challenge investments by strategically regranting $200 million to 114 grantees conducting work in 152 nations.

• The UN Setting Programme’s (UNEP’s) Worldwide Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) introduced new participation within the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) since its launch in December 2023. International locations representing over two-thirds of oil and gasoline emissions occasions detected by MARS in 2023 now take part in this system with nominated focal factors.  These focal factors span the over 140 member firms of UNEP’s Oil and Gasoline Methane Partnership 2.0 and 15 governments of main oil and gasoline producing nations, which symbolize greater than 60% of world oil and gasoline manufacturing.

• The World Financial institution introduced that, with $10 million in US funding, they’re advancing the work of mainstreaming methane into their world growth programming with a primary batch of 15 country-led packages centered on lowering 10 million tons of methane from the livestock, rice, waste and sanitation sectors and benefiting over 100 million folks.

As we speak’s new actions construct on greater than three years of labor by the Biden-Harris administration to sort out super-pollutants at dwelling and overseas.

Home highlights embrace:

• In 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration took practically 100 actions to dramatically cut back methane emissions underneath the U.S. Methane Emissions Discount Motion Plan. These actions included plugging leaks and regulating emissions within the oil and gasoline sector, reclaiming deserted coal mines, lowering meals waste and agricultural emissions, investing in cleaner buildings and industrial processes, and launching modern applied sciences to detect and halt giant methane emissions.
• Yesterday, as a part of $4.3 billion in Local weather Air pollution Discount Grants from the Inflation Discount Act, EPA introduced a number of grants to cut back tremendous pollutant emissions in states throughout the nation, together with to the Pennsylvania Division of Environmental Safety to cut back industrial greenhouse gasoline emissions, to the Hudson Valley Regional Council to cut back fugitive methane emissions from closed landfills, and to the Colorado Vitality Workplace to cut back methane emissions from landfills, coal mines, and pure seepage. In complete, Local weather Air pollution Discount Grant initiatives are estimated to cut back tremendous pollutant emissions via 2030 equal to the annual vitality use of roughly 3.5 million properties.
• EPA is implementing a nationwide program underneath the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act to realize an 85% phasedown by 2036 of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – potent greenhouse gases utilized in refrigeration, heating and cooling gear, and different sectors. This phasedown will cumulatively obtain emissions reductions equal to 4.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2022 to 2050 – equal to roughly three years of U.S. energy sector emissions at 2019 ranges.
• Final summer season, EPA issued a last rule to implement a 40% phasedown of HFCs beginning in 2024. This builds on the success of the ten% phasedown that EPA applied for 2022 and 2023. The 2024 phasedown establishes an identical allowance methodology to offer regulatory certainty to trade and stakeholders, guaranteeing environment friendly implementation.
• The Administration’s Interagency Process Drive on Unlawful HFC Commerce continues to work diligently on strong enforcement mechanisms to make sure a stage taking part in discipline for U.S. firms complying with the phasedown necessities. For the reason that begin of the phasedown in January 2022, the Process Drive has prevented unlawful HFC shipments on the border equal to greater than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – greater than the emissions from over 200,000 properties’ electrical energy use for one yr.
• In April 2024, PHMSA introduced practically $400 million in grants to fund 130 initiatives in 26 states to restore, rehabilitate, or change gasoline distribution pipelines which can be susceptible to methane leaks and ruptures and different security hazards in predominantly underserved communities as a part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation’s first-of-its-kind Pure Gasoline Distribution Infrastructure and Modernization Grant Program.

• In June 2024, the White Home and a number of other federal businesses launched a Nationwide Technique for Lowering Meals Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics which lays out a path for the U.S. to fulfill its nationwide objective of lowering meals loss and waste by 50% by 2030. Stopping meals loss and waste and rising recycling of meals and different natural supplies has vital advantages together with lowering greenhouse gasoline emissions, saving households and companies cash, and constructing cleaner, more healthy communities.

• In Might 2024, EPA issued a last rule to strengthen, develop and replace methane emissions reporting necessities for petroleum and pure gasoline methods underneath their Greenhouse Gasoline Reporting Program, as required by the IRA. The ultimate revisions will guarantee higher transparency and accountability for methane air pollution from oil and pure gasoline amenities by enhancing the accuracy of annual emissions reporting from these operations. 
• In June 2024, EPA and the U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) introduced the supply of $850 million in Inflation Discount Act funding via the Methane Emissions Discount Program to assist oil and pure gasoline sector operators cut back methane emissions and transition to out there and modern methane emissions discount applied sciences. This system additionally goals to enhance emissions knowledge assortment and measurement in any respect scales (floor stage, aerial, and satellite tv for pc) and supply correct, clear knowledge and monitoring functionality to impacted communities.
• Within the first half of 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration has been supporting the event of measurement, modeling, and knowledge requirements for detecting methane concentrations and quantifying level supply emissions via the 2023 Nationwide Technique to Advance an Built-in U.S. Greenhouse Gasoline Measurement, Monitoring and Data System.