Industry Sector Emissions

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Sources of Industry Sector Emissions
Industry Sector Emissions Trends
Reducing Emissions from Industry

Sources of Industry Sector Emissions

The industry sector produces the goods and raw materials we use every day. The greenhouse gases emitted during industrial production are split into two categories: direct emissions that are produced at the facility, and indirect emissions that occur off site but are associated with the facility's use of electricity.

Direct emissions are produced by burning fuel for power or heat, through chemical reactions, and from leaks from industrial processes or equipment. Most direct emissions come from the consumption of fossil fuels for energy. A smaller amount of direct emissions, roughly one third, come from leaks from natural gas and petroleum systems, the use of fuels in production (e.g., petroleum products used to make plastics), and chemical reactions during the production of chemicals, metals (e.g., iron and steel), and minerals (e.g., cement).
Indirect emissions are produced by burning fossil fuel at a power plant to make electricity, which is then used by an industrial facility to power industrial buildings and machinery.

More information about facility-level emissions from large industrial sources is available through EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data publication tool. National-level information about emissions from industry as a whole can be found in the sections on Fossil Fuel Combustion and the Industrial Processes chapter in the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.

Industry Sector Emissions Trends

In 2022, direct and indirect industrial greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions of any sector.
Direct greenhouse gas emissions from Industry account for 23% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the third largest contributor to direct U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, after the Transportation and Electric Power sectors.
From 2021 to 2022, total energy use in the industrial sector decreased by less than 1%. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from industry, including electricity, have declined by 22% since 1990.

Reducing Emissions from Industry

There are a wide variety of industrial activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions, and many opportunities to reduce them. The table shown below provides some examples of opportunities for industry to reduce emissions. For a more comprehensive list, see Chapter 11 of the Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ¹

Examples of Reduction Opportunities for the Industry Sector
Type	How Emissions Are Reduced	Examples
Energy Efficiency	Upgrading to more efficient industrial technology. EPA's ENERGY STAR® program helps industries become more energy-efficient.	Identifying ways that manufacturers can use less energy for powering buildings, industrial processes and to run equipment.
Fuel Switching	Switching to fuels that result in less CO₂ emissions but the same amount of energy, when combusted.	Using natural gas instead of coal as process input.
Recycling	Producing industrial products from materials that are recycled or renewable, rather than producing new products from raw materials.	Using scrap steel and scrap aluminum as opposed to smelting new aluminum or forging new steel.
Training and Awareness	Making companies and workers aware of the steps to reduce or prevent emissions leaks from equipment. EPA has a variety of resources for training and other steps for reducing emissions. EPA has experience working with the aluminum, semiconductor, and magnesium industries.	Instituting handling policies and procedures for perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) that reduce occurrences of accidental releases and leaks from containers and equipment.

References

IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926

An Explanation of Units

A million metric tons of CO₂: What does that mean?

A million metric tons equals about 2.2 billion pounds, or 1 trillion grams. For comparison, a small car is likely to weigh a little more than 1 metric ton. Thus, a million metric tons are roughly the same mass as 1 million small cars.

The U.S. GHG Inventory uses metric units for consistency and comparability with other countries. For reference, a metric ton is slightly more (approximately 10%) than a U.S. "short" ton.

Greenhouse gas emissions are often measured in carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent. To convert emissions of a gas into CO₂ equivalent, its emissions are multiplied by the gas's Global Warming Potential (GWP). The GWP takes into account the fact that many gases are more effective at warming Earth than CO₂, per unit mass.

The GWP values appearing in the Overview of Greenhouse Gases and Sources of Greenhouse Gas web pages reflect the values used in the U.S. GHG Inventory, which are drawn from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). For further discussion of GWPs and an estimate of greenhouse gas emissions using updated GWPs, see Annex 6 of the U.S. GHG Inventory and the IPCC's discussion on GWPs (pdf).