A report has listed New York city as using almost 1% of the U.S. of A.'s energy consumption, which puts the Big Apple on a par with entire countries like Ireland and Portugal. But, despite these astronomical figures, New Yorker's still undercut other U.S. citizens.
The study, released Tuesday, was ordered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to assess the city's progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. It was conducted by the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability.
... The study found that the buildings, subways, buses, cars and decomposition of waste in America's most populous city produced a net emission of 58.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. The U.S. total was 7.26 billion metric tons for that year.It would be interesting if they could tally the energy consumption of all systems utilised to support the city from outside its perimeter - i.e. production and transport systems from across the U.S. and the world that supply the food and other goods the city consumes - to get a true end to end picture.... With 2.7 percent of the country's population -- 8.2 million of 300 million -- the average New York City resident contributes less than a third of the emissions generated by a typical American. This is largely due to the popularity of the city's mass transit system, which cuts down on car emissions, officials said.
The operation of the city's hundreds of thousands of buildings -- which consume electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and steam -- contribute 79 percent of the city's emissions total.
The study found that the city's focus on environmentally friendly initiatives -- including alternative fuel vehicles, energy efficient traffic lights and green buildings -- appears to have helped stabilize emissions rates in recent years.
"Each one of these things really does make a difference, and they add up," Bloomberg said.
Still, emissions were found to have increased by more than 8 percent between 1995 and 2005, the study found. - ENN
