A new study finds more than half Oregon's carbon footprint results from products manufactured elsewhere, such as this factory in Linfen, China, and imported into the state. |credit: Flickr/Bert van Dijk | rollover image for more
PORTLAND — Oregon has just released figures that track the state’s carbon footprint based on what we buy. It’s believed to be the first such analysis by any state in the country.
The most common way to track greenhouse gases looks at what’s emitted within a state’s borders. the latest analysis suggests that products created out-of-state account for more than half of Oregon’s carbon footprint.
Oregon has been tracking greenhouse gas emissions since the early 1990s. But the inventory has always focused on local industrial emissions and carbon related to electricity. That doesn’t tell the whole story, according to Department of Environmental Quality spokesman, David Alloway.
“And it leaves out some important details, particular around materials and products. And so this new consumption-based inventory fills those gaps,” he says.
The new inventory finds that local sources of emissions make up less than half of the carbon Oregon consumers are responsible for.
The rest consists of imported products – coffee from South America, clothes and toys from China, cars made in Japan or Tennessee. Alloway says the study suggests local products have smaller carbon footprints – but maybe not for the reason that people would assume.
Alloway: “It’s not because of freight – everyone thinks it’s because of freight. The emissions from freight are surprisingly small. It’s because production here in the United States tends to be cleaner and use lower carbon-fuel mixes than production in the countries that we tend to import a lot of products from.”
Among the products with the largest carbon footprints are cars – which require carbon to be built, and can continue to emit carbon once they’re bought. appliances and food products are high on the list, as well. Those three categories alone account for roughly half of Oregon’s consumer carbon.
DEQ officials say the new consumption-based analysis is not meant to replace the existing production-based inventory. The new consumption-based report could have policy implications that are yet to play out. Oregon’s Global Warming Commission requested the study and its members could make recommendations.
The inventory uses 2005 data. That’s because it takes time for information to come out, and to do this kind of analysis. Officials say it might make sense to update the inventory again in a few years, because the economy has changed since 2005.
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