(Office of the Governor) — On Thursday, April 11, 2024 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the American Memorial Park Visitor Center, the Office of the Governor’s Climate Policy & Planning Program invites community members to a presentation of the CNMI’s preliminary greenhouse gas or GHG inventory and proposed priority measures to reduce GHG emissions. Discussion and Q&A will follow.
Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. They include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, generate these gases and contribute to the warming of the planet. The key sectors considered in the CNMI’s GHG inventory are: 1) electric power generation (stationary combustion); 2) transportation (mobile combustion); 3) wastewater; 4) solid waste; and 5) carbon sequestration. The preliminary inventory estimates over 440,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent were generated across source sectors in the base year 2023. Electric power generation and transportation were the biggest emission sources by far, accounting for 51% and 48% of emissions, respectively.
The GHG inventory and proposed near-term, high-impact emissions reduction measures will be part of the Commonwealth’s Priority Climate Action Plan, which will be submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and published online later this month. Eligible departments, offices, agencies, and municipalities of the CNMI government are currently preparing applications for implementation funding under EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program.
The CPRG Program was created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s landmark legislation investing in climate action and clean energy. The program provides $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing GHG emissions and other harmful air pollution. EPA has set aside $300 million for the tribes and territories’ competition for implementation grants, which are due May 1.
For more information about EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Program, visit https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/climate-pollution-reduction-grants or contact Tina Sablan, special assistant for climate policy and planning at (670) 664-8527 or tina.sablan@gov.mp/.
