CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Our state is in danger of not reaching its climate change goals, according to a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund.

What You Need To Know

  • A report from the Environmental Defense Fund shows N.C. is not on track to meet its goal to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030

  • The EDF study found our state could achieve a 28% to 38% reduction by the end of the decade, but it's still way off the target set by Gov. Roy Cooper

  • The Southern Environmental Law Center wants to push leaders to join a regional effort that would cut carbon levels quickly

The report from the EDF makes clear that in order to see change, North Carolina leaders need to take action on a policy level.

Gov. Roy Cooper issued two executive orders in recent years, both committed to reducing our state's economy-wide emissions.

The report from the EDF shows N.C. could achieve a 28% to 38% reduction by 2030, but that number is still way off of the 50% goal.

Nick Jimenez is a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center. The organization sent a request to the Division of Air Quality in January 2021. The letter asks them to push the Environmental Management Commission to adopt a rule that will limit carbon dioxide pollution from the electric power sector in our state.

“One of the really good things that it does is it cuts carbon really quickly," Jimenez said.

The petition would allow N.C. to join a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve a 70% reduction by 2030. A body within the Department of Environment Quality granted the petition last July, but it is still in the process of becoming a rule.

"We'd like to see that happen faster," Jimenez said. "People could call their representative or the governor and say we would like to see that move forward.”​

To close our state's emissions gap, the report from the EDF recommends that Cooper lock in pollution reductions in the power sector grid, pursue a comprehensive approach to clean transportation and identify new ways to cut pollution across the economy.

"At the point we are at in the climate emergency, we need to be doing more than just relying on people individually to kind of make these wise and caring decisions about their individual consumption," Jimenez said. "We really need big-picture policy changes.”