A consensus is emerging today in the United States that climate change is a critical issue requiring a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases have increased by more than 17 percent since 1990. The bulk of this is driven by a nearly 20 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990. In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions come primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels in energy use. Energy use is largely driven by economic
growth with short-term fluctuations in its growth rate created by weather patterns affecting heating and cooling needs, as well as changes in the fuel used in electricity generation. For instance, some of the factors responsible for the higher emissions since 1990 are the increased demand for electricity for computers and electronics in homes and offices; strong growth in demand for commercial lighting and cooling and increased demand for transportation services as a result of relatively low fuel prices and robust economic growth in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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Aparna Mathur is a research fellow at AEI.