District of Columbia

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To get to zero by 2050, District of Columbia must cut emissions by 3.8% a year

Emissions in District of Columbia

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)  equivalent (MTCO2e ) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

District of Columbia's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

    47% of District of Columbia's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps 
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves 

    ...in all of District of Columbia's 78,000 buildings.

    In fact, 36.4% of appliances in buildings in District of Columbia are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 49,000 dirty buildings in District of Columbia. That's around 2,000 per year.

    Percent of Appliances Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Appliances Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.36.42% have been electrified, and the remaining 63.58% are fossil fuel based.Appliances Electrified: 36.4%Needed This Year: 2.4%Not Yet: 61.2%Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 47% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

    30% of District of Columbia's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 210,000 vehicles in District of Columbia and 2,000 are already electric (1.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 208,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 8,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.1.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 98.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles Electrified: 1.1%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 95.2%Source: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 30% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

    Power

    District of Columbia doesn't produce any power that creates climate pollution! 😎

    Check out another state to see how they can cut their power emissions to zero.

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 23%🚗 Transport: 30%🏠 Buildings: 47%

    The last 23% of District of Columbia's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification  doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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