Greenwashed energy transitions: Are US cities accounting for the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of energy resources in climate action plans?

Abstract

Across the United States, cities have developed climate action plans (CAPs) to announce and implement climate change mitigation strategies. Seventeen CAPs were selected to determine if and how these plans are accounting for the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with their energy system transitions through document analysis. Each CAP, along with other relevant documents such as GHG inventories, was studied through an analysis matrix of criteria based on life cycle assessment (LCA) best practices, designed to identify how the methodologies used by cities to quantify GHG emissions reductions strategies compare to the LCA approach that encompasses emissions from cradle to grave. A wide range of methods, strategies, and assumptions were observed in how cities plan to achieve GHG reductions associated with energy use. Fourteen of the seventeen CAPs describe renewably sourced electricity as emitting no GHGs, seemingly failing to account for the life cycle impacts of these resources. Further, several reviewed CAPs have set GHG reduction goals that rely on technology that is not currently viable, and/or monetary offset mechanisms, as opposed to implementing climate change mitigation strategies based on comparing the life cycle impacts of alternatives. The results of this qualitative analysis demonstrate the need for standardizing CAP development methods and suggest that current methods in practice may be underestimating energy sector GHG emissions, thus hindering the efficacy of proposed energy system transitions for climate change mitigation.