EPA is meeting the United States' climate change objectives by working in partnership with business and other sectors through programs that deliver multiple benefits-from cleaner air to lower energy bills -- while improving overall scientific understanding of climate change and its potential consequences. In FY 2001, EPA expects to continue expanding on the significant accomplishments of its Climate Change Programs. The opportunity to save on our nation's $500 billion annual energy bill over the next decade while reducing air pollution is tremendous. The opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is also large. We currently expect that more than half of the nation's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 will come from equipment that we purchase between now and then.

The core of EPA's climate change efforts are government/industry partnership programs designed to capitalize on the opportunity consumers, businesses, and organizations have to make sound investments in efficient equipment and practices. Thousands of equipment purchases are made every day, and often people buy the equipment that is the least efficient, thereby committing themselves to higher energy bills for ten to twenty years at a time, depending upon the life of the equipment. At the same time, people often overlook the investment opportunities that the more efficient equipment represent, investment opportunities with the potential of more than double the return on investment of other common options (e.g., money markets, U.S. Treasury bonds).

Under the President's Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI), EPA manages a number of efforts such as the ENERGY STAR programs and the EPA portion of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) to remove barriers in the marketplace and deploy technology faster in the residential, commercial, transportation, and industrial sectors of the economy. EPA programs do not provide financial subsidies. Instead, they work by overcoming widely acknowledged barriers to energy efficiency - lack of clear, reliable information on technology 'opportunities; lack of awareness of energy efficient products and services; lack of financing options to turn life cycle energy savings into initial cost savings for consumers; and low incentives to Inanufacturers for efficiency research and development (R&D).

The Agency will also continue focusing on climate change activities that would provide co-benefits to the specific country and the global commons. By recognizing and providing support for in-country environmental issues such as local air quality, energy access and efficiency, cleaner production, and solid waste management (for methane reduction), global reductions in green house gas emissions are gained.

In addition to CCTI programs, EPA manages one other programmatic climate change effort, EPA's Global Change Research Program. This program is an assessment-oriented program committed to evaluating the potential consequences of global change for human health, ecosystems, and socioeconomic systems in the United States. EPA also assessed the potential to adapt to global change in order to reduce the risks and take advantage of opportunities presented by global change. The long-term goal of the GCRP is to understand and articulate, in terms that are meaningful for decision-makers and other stakeholders, the potential consequences of global environmental change for human health and ecosystems in the U.S.

Program Accomplishments

EPA has had substantial success across its CCTI and global change research efforts. Through 1999, EPA's CCTI programs (see Table 1) are substantially reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane and perfluorocompounds (PFCs). These programs have reduced U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 115 million metric tons carbon equivalent (MMTCE), while also saving families and businesses over $11 billion on their energy bills and keeping roughly 275,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NO) pollution from entering the air.

These programs have locked in substantial benefits over the next decade. Since many of the investments promoted through EPA's climate programs involve energy efficient equipment with lifetimes of decades or more, the investments that have been spurred through 1999 will continue to deliver environmental and economic benefits through 2010 and beyond. EPA currently estimates that based on investments in equipment already made due to EPA's programs through 1999, organizations and consumers across the country will save more than $25 billion through 2015, and, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by more than 230 MMTCE through 2015 (cumulative reductions based upon estimated 1999 achievements.)

These programs continue to be highly cost-effective approaches for delivering environmental benefits across the country. For every dollar spent by EPA on its technology deployment programs, these programs have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and delivered $70 in energy bill savings. This is based upon a cumulative reduction since 1995.

In addition to these benefits, the transportation research and development component of CCTI has produced important technological advancements that will generate substantial energy and carbon benefits in future years, while improving America's competitiveness. EPA has been also successful with its Global Change Research Program. EPA has completed preliminary assessments of regional scale consequences of climate change at 2 geographic locations, as well as the Human Health sectoral assessment. Completion of these efforts means that EPA has met most of its GPRA performance goals for this research program. The third geographic assessment is behind schedule due to difficulties obtaining a high-quality project proposal able to pass rigorous scientific peer review.

In 1999 alone, the CCTI programs:

reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 44 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE);

reduced energy consumption by about 55 billion kilowatt hours;

successfully demonstrated 61 miles per gallon (gasoline equivalent) on a mid-size research chassis at 3,500 pound test weight with a state-of-the-art diesel engine and an EPA-invented, patented, and developed hybrid drivetrain;

and worked with 9-developing countries to develop important infrastructure for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

(These are the four primary GPRA performance measures for EPA's CCTI programs. Each of the goals is on target for 1999 and PNGV has been met. There are also goals for some of the key subparts of EPA's CCTI. Table 2 shows that these goals are on target as well.)

Through 1999, EPA's CCTI programs have also:

⚫ offset growth in greenhouse gas emissions above 1990 levels by about 19%;

conserved enough energy to light 50 million homes for the year;

prevented NOx emissions equivalent to the annual pollution from 75 power plants; and

avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to eliminating the pollution from more than 35 million cars for the year.

EPA's climate change programs are on target to meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals in 1999 as shown in Figure 1 and are meeting the challenge of substantially higher emissions reduction goals. Many of the key EPA programs have performed above their specific goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, as shown in Table 2.

The programs have a number of key accomplishments through the end of 1999 that are highlighted in Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the buildings, industry, transportation and other sectors, respectively.