US greenhouse gas emissions drop 3.4% in 2012

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday that the country's greenhouse gas emissions showed a 3.4 percent decrease in 2012 from 2011.

In an annual report submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the EPA said that total emissions of the six main greenhouse gases in 2012, namely, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride, were equivalent to 6,526 million tons of carbon dioxide.

"The major contributors to the decrease in emissions from 2011- 2012 were the decrease in energy consumption across all sectors in the U.S. economy, and the decrease in carbon intensity for electricity generation due to fuel switching from coal to natural gas," the EPA said.

"Other factors included a decrease in transportation sector emissions attributed to an increase in fuel efficiency across different transportation modes and limited new demand for passenger transportation," it said.

U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged that the United States would cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, and according to the latest data, emissions fell 10 percent from 2005 to 2012.

Most countries, however, use 1990, rather than 2005, as the base year. Compared with 1990, U.S. emissions were up about 4.7 percent in 2012, according to the latest data.

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