Nevada Statewide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Projections
Nevada Statewide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Projections, 1990 to 2030
Executive Summary
The Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) require that a statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory be
prepared and issued at least every 4 years. It further stipulates that the report must include the origin,
types, and amounts of GHGs emitted throughout the state, and all supporting analyses and
documentation. This report represents a comprehensive inventory of anthropogenic GHG emissions in
Nevada that specifically considers the 6 GHGs listed in NRS 445B.137: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane
(CH4), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), and sulfur hexafluoride
(SF6). This report was developed using the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) State
Inventory Tool (SIT). The SIT is a series of emissions calculators broken up by sectors designed to help
states develop GHG inventories. This report utilizes the SIT to estimate historical emissions from 1990
to 2013 and project future emissions to 2030 for eight different sectors in Nevada.¹
2
The inventory of Nevada's GHG emissions estimates 2013 gross GHG emissions totaled 44.039 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MMTCO2eq) and net GHG emissions totaled 39.251
MMTCO2eq. These emissions estimates are far less than the state's peak in 2005 when there were an
estimated 60.362 MMTCO2eq of gross and net GHGs emitted.³ The state's two largest sectors in terms
of GHG emissions are electricity generation and transportation. Combined, the combustion of fossil
fuels for the generation of electricity and transportation related purposes accounted for 67 percent of
the state's total 2013 emissions. Figure ES-1 illustrates the relative gross GHG contributions of the
various sectors considered in this report and also the relative contribution of the GHGs themselves to
total Nevada emissions in 2013. Note that the land use, land use change, and forestry (forestry) sector
is absent from Figure ES-1 as it acted as an emissions sink in 2013.
Figure ES-1: 2013 Nevada Gross GHG Emissions by Sector and Relative Contributions of
Waste
Management
4%
Agriculture
3%
Fossil Fuel
Industry
2%
Industrial
Processes
8%
Residential,
Commercial,
and Industrial
16%
Transportation
33%
Electricity
Generation
34%
GHGs
N₂O
2%
HFC, PFC, and
SF6
3%
CH4
12%
CO₂
83%
1 2013 is the most recent year with datasets available for all of the GHG sources considered.
2
Net GHG emissions are calculated as total gross emissions minus the net amount of CO2 sequestered by natural
ecosystems (e.g. forestry sector).
3
That gross and net emissions were the same implies that the forestry sector was a source and not a sink for
emissions in that particular year.
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