The United States has vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by the decade’s end. President Joe Biden reaffirmed that goal in his November address at the Climate Change Convention (COP27).
“The United States of America will meet our emissions targets by 2030,” Biden said at the meeting in Egypt.
However, reaching that goal depends on the political will in half the states to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, according to data from the Virginia Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, an environmental nonprofit organization based in Arlington.
Seven of the 12 states in the Midwest still need to set a target to reduce these emissions. Among them is Iowa, the nation’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector.
As Investigate Midwest and The Gazette reported last week, while other industries have curbed their emissions over the past 30 years, agricultural emissions have continued unabated.
Mónica Cordero is an investigative and data journalist for Investigate Midwest and a corps member with Report for America.
