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4.5 – Greenhouse Gas Emissions <br />Draft Environmental Impact Report February 2021 <br />14800 W. Schulte Road Logistics Center 4.5-4 <br />2016). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change developed the global warming potential (GWP) concept to <br />compare the ability of each GHG to trap heat in the atmosphere relative to another gas. The GWP of a GHG is <br />defined as the ratio of the time-integrated radiative forcing from the instantaneous release of 1 kilogram of a trace <br />substance relative to that of 1 kilogram of a reference gas (IPCC 2014). The reference gas used is CO 2; therefore, <br />GWP-weighted emissions are measured in metric tons (MT) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). <br />The current version of the California Emissions Estimator Model (CalEEMod) (version 2016.3.2) assumes that the <br />GWP for CH4 is 25 (so emissions of 1 MT of CH4 are equivalent to emissions of 25 MT of CO2), and the GWP for N2O <br />is 298, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC 2007). The <br />GWP values identified in CalEEMod were applied to the Project. <br />Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions <br />Anthropogenic GHG emissions worldwide in 2017 (the most recent year for which data is available) totaled <br />approximately 50,860 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2e, excluding land use change and forestry (PBL 2018). Six <br />countries—China, the United States, the Russian Federation, India, Japan, and Brazil—and the European community <br />accounted for approximately 65% of the total global emissions, or approximately 33,290 MMT CO 2e (PBL 2018). <br />Per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990– <br />2018 (EPA 2020), total United States GHG emissions were approximately 6,676.6 MMT CO2e in 2018 (EPA 2020). <br />The primary GHG emitted by human activities in the United States was CO2, which represented approximately 81.3% <br />of total GHG emissions (5,428.1 MMT CO2e). The largest source of CO2, and of overall GHG emissions, was fossil- <br />fuel combustion, which accounted for approximately 92.8% of CO2 emissions in 2018 (5,031.8 MMT CO2e). Relative <br />to 1990, gross United States GHG emissions in 2018 were higher by 3.7%, down from a high of 15.2% above 1990 <br />levels in 2007. GHG emissions decreased from 2017 to 2018 by 2.9% (188.4 MMT CO2e) and overall, net <br />emissions in 2018 were 10.2% below 2005 levels (EPA 2020). <br />According to California’s 2000–2018 GHG emissions inventory (2020 edition), California emitted 425 MMT CO2e <br />in 2018, including emissions resulting from out-of-state electrical generation (CARB 2020). The sources of GHG <br />emissions in California include transportation, industrial uses, electric power production from both in-state and out- <br />of-state sources, commercial and residential uses, agriculture, high-GWP substances, and recycling and waste. The <br />California GHG emissions source categories and their relative contributions in 2018 are presented in Table 4.5-1. <br />Table 4.5-1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Sources in California <br />Source Category Annual GHG Emissions (MMT CO2e) Percent of Total <br />Transportation 169.50 40% <br />Industrial uses 89.18 21% <br />Electricity generationa 63.11 15% <br />Residential and commercial uses 41.37 10% <br />Agriculture 32.57 8% <br />High GWP substances 20.46 5% <br />Recycling and waste 9.09 2% <br />Totals 425.28 100% <br />Source: CARB 2020. <br />Notes: GHG = greenhouse gas; GWP = global warming potential; MMT CO2e = million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. <br />Emissions reflect 2018 California GHG inventory. <br />Totals may not sum due to rounding. <br />a Includes emissions associated with imported electricity, which account for 24.57 MMT CO2e.