Emissions & Greenhouse Gases

The City of Cincinnati recognizes that climate plays an important role in the quality of life, economic well-being, and long term sustainability of our City and region. Greenhouse gases (GHG) like Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide as the result of human activity are collecting in the Earth’s atmosphere at levels that are capable of altering our climate. The Green Cincinnati Plan outlines steps we can take to mitigate our region’s environmental impact and one of those steps is a greenhouse gas inventory. Cincinnati’s first GHG inventory was conducted in 2006, and serves as the baseline from which our climate impact is measured. This summary of Cincinnati's 2015 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Analysis shows that our efforts, combined with changes in the region’s energy supply, have been effective in reducing our emissions output. With this information the City of Cincinnati can measure our progress on our path to sustainability and provides data to inform policy and decision making. The Government emissions inventory includes emissions generated from municipal operations, including energy used in water and waste water treatment, city building and facilities operations, streetlights, traffic signals, vehicle fleet and aviation fuel use. Reductions can be attributed to: Street light conversion to LED lightbulbs; Facility energy improvement upgrades/retrofits; Upgrades to Metropolitan Sewer District's incinerators; and Installation of solar panels on some City owned facilities. The Community emissions inventory includes emissions generated from commercial, industrial, and residential gas and electric consumption, motor vehicle transportation, and solid waste generation. Reductions can be attributed to:Incentives for commercial energy upgrades offered by Duke; Grid decarbonization;100% Renewable energy offered to residents and businesses through the City's Energy Aggregation Program; Population loss from 2006 to 2015 (approximately 10%); and Improved waste diversion. Taken together, Government and Community emissions total approximately 7.6M tons CO2e, representing a citywide reduction of 18.4% since the 2006 baseline was established at 9.3M tons CO2e. The largest increases in emissions occurred in the industrial energy and vehicular travel sector, while the largest reductions were seen in the commercial and residential energy sectors. From 2006 to 20015, Cincinnati achieved a city-wide 18.4% reduction in GHG emissions. Based on targets originally established in the 2008 Green Cincinnati Plan, this decrease indicates that the city has met its goal of a 2% reduction in GHG emissions per year. The City of Cincinnati will continue to work to reduce the region’s emissions through the implementation of recommendations of the Green Cincinnati Plan.