Visit the City of Reno GHG Emissions Dashboard. By measuring emissions, across operations, we're gaining insights needed to prioritize impactful action, improve transparency, and guide long-term sustainability.  

In 2021, the City of Reno made GHG emissions data public through Google Environmental Insights. This data shows emissions from transportation, building energy use, and rooftop solar potential. 

Beginning in 2015, the Mayor and City Council passed a series of resolutions making climate action a priority for our community. The City of Reno joined the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the largest international coalition of cities committed to taking voluntary action to combat climate change and move to a low-emission, resilient society.

Community-wide Greenhouse Gas Inventory

In 2023, the City of Reno partnered with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability USA to re-measure our community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using data from 2021. The total GHG emissions for Reno were 2.67 million metric tons of CO2e (“carbon dioxide equivalent” measures greenhouse gases with a common unit), down from 2.75 million metric tons of CO2e in 2014. GHG emissions is also referred to as climate pollution.

The building sector generates 57% of total climate pollution with the residential sector the highest generator at 31%, and commercial at 26%. Transportation contributes 37% of climate pollution, and because our community is an auto-dependent community, 60% of those emissions are from on road, gasoline-powered vehicles. Solid waste, water and wastewater, and process and fugitive emissions collectively comprise the remaining 5% of climate pollution.

We found that the total emissions dropped from just over 80,000 metric tons in 2014 to 2.67 million metric tons. This translates to about a 3% drop in total emissions in seven years. This fantastic progress shows that the city and our community are taking action to reduce carbon pollution. The rise in popularity of fuel-efficient cars, rooftop solar panels, smart thermostats, and recycling have all contributed to the rapid drop in climate pollution.

LED bulbs provide another simple example of what residents and businesses are doing. As more LED bulbs have entered the market, homes and business are switching to cleaner, more-efficient lighting. LED bulbs last longer and use a fraction of the energy required for traditional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. Through our combined actions to lower climate pollution, together we are ensuring our future prosperity, as well as clean air and a healthy environment for our families.

To better understand Reno’s GHG emissions, we compared our community against other community’s per capita emissions. Reno’s emissions are relatively low (9.93 metric tons/per capita) compared to the national average (13 metric tons/per capita) (The World Bank, 2020). One main reason is that Nevada's Energy Portfolio Standard requires that 25% of electricity sales come from renewable energy resources by 2025. In 2023, 30.7% of Nevada’s net electricity generation came from geothermal, solar, wind, biomass, and hydroelectric power sources (Governor’s Office of Energy, 2023).

The Mayor joined over 2,500 leaders from America’s city halls, state houses, boardrooms, businesses, and college campuses by signing the We Are Still In Declaration stating our commitment to meet the Paris Agreement in the absence of federal leadership. We Are Still In is a bipartisan initiative spanning all 50 states and representing over 130 million Americans and $6.2 trillion of the U.S. economy. 

Reno has long seen itself as a pioneer city. In the beginning, Reno was a town built on mining and gaming. Today, Reno is building our clean energy economy. In the past decade alone, the city invested in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that reduced municipal building energy use by 37%, providing cumulative savings of $3.4 million. These resources now can support other city priorities.

Sources

Governor’s Office of Energy, 2023. 2022 Status of Energy Report.

The World Bank, 2020. CO2 Emissions (Metric Tons Per Capita).