Twin Cities MSA Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Documentation

Executive summary

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under assistance agreement 00E03476 to the Metropolitan Council. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the EPA, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.

Note

This document will be updated continuously in preparation of the Metropolitan Council Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP). Please check back occasionally as we update modify and add new content. You can find a summary of changes in the Appendix H — Release notes.

In 2021, the Twin-Cities MSA generated 56.29 million metric tons CO₂ equivalent (MMtCO₂e) emissions from the energy, transportation, industrial, waste, and agricultural sectors. Transportation was the largest contributor to GHG emissions (32.1%), followed by Industrial (24.1%), and Commercial (22.2%). Carbon sequestration from natural systems offset 4.2% of total emissions. In the methodology sector breakdown, we explain how electricity and natural gas emissions are calculated and apportioned to the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.

Figure 1: Regional emissions by sector and category

Emissions through time

Emissions in the region fell by 15.4% from 2005 to 2021. This is principally attributed to decarbonization of the electric grid, which fell 43.9% from 2005 to 2021. Other sectors showed small increases or decreases.

Figure 2: Regional emissions by sector through time

County Emissions

Different counties have different emission profiles depending on land-use and community characteristics.

Figure 3: County emissions by sector in 2021

However, most emissions are closely tied to population and a per capita emissions profile shows a more even distribution.

Figure 4: County emissions per capita by sector in 2021

About this document

This is a Quarto book. Code, data, and documentation are all stored in the same place. We primarily use R.

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Acknowledgements

This document is the result of tremendous work across the Metropolitan Council. Individuals are noted by their name, title, contribution, and division.

Primary authors

• Sam Limerick, Senior Data Scientist, Electricity and Natural Gas (CD)
  
• Liz Roten, Senior Data Scientist, Transportation (MTS)
  
• Kenneth Smith, Principal Researcher, LIDAC, Natural Systems, Wastewater (CD)
  
• Peter Wilfahrt, Principal Researcher, Industrial, Agricultural, Wastewater, (CD)
  
• Zoey Yandell, Intern, Solid Waste (CD)
  

Contributors

• Laine McNamara, Business Systems Analyst III, editing (CD)