Lincoln Journal Star. March 30, 2024.
Editorial: At last, state has its own climate action plan
In 2021, Nebraska’s estimated greenhouse gas emissions were 80.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, 26th highest among the 50 states. But the sparsely populated state’s per capita emissions of 41.19 metric tons per person ranked sixth highest in the country.
Just under half of those emissions, 42%, came from agriculture, a quarter from electric power generation and 16% from transportation.
That is the baseline reality that has, at last, been addressed in the state’s first Climate Action Plan that was submitted to federal regulators this month, more than three years after Lincoln adopted its plan to address both greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of climate change on the city.
The latter plan determined that Lincoln’s climate may warm as much as 5 degrees by 2050, and residents will face harsher weather conditions and more extreme weather events as a result. Those findings would generally be true for the state.
The primary objective of the Lincoln plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 as it implements measures to address likely water scarcity, such as creating a second city water source, and energy efficiency.
The state plan, designed to “identify voluntary, incentive-based measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the State of Nebraska,” could cut the state’s net greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30% by 2030.
The incentive-based measures attempt to convince farmers to participate in precision farming, which utilizes technology to track growing conditions and targets GPS-programmed technologies and “chemically based interventions” for specific crops, and to get corn and soybean producers to participate in Nebraska’s Carbon Intensity Score Registry.
It, however, remains to be seen whether farmers, some of whom may doubt climate change or resist efforts to adopt new farming techniques over profit concerns, will participate in those programs.
Their participation is critical if the state is to have any chance of hitting the carbon emission reduction goal. Ag-related proposals account for more than 86% of its potential emission reduction.
In fact, the planners say that “rapid, widespread adoption of the key strategies” would achieve “substantial reductions in greenhouse gas and other air pollutant emissions as early as 2026. That could be the case, but given history, it is hard not to be skeptical of immediate buy-in by farmers.
More certain reductions will come from the second largest source of emissions, electric generation.
The state’s four largest public electric utilities have already set net-zero carbon emission goals and are actively working to reduce and eventually eliminate coal-fired generation. Lincoln again led the way with the Lincoln Electric System setting its target date for 2040, a decade earlier than the other three utilities.
The state plan also includes programs to reduce residential energy consumption, encourage renewable energy, such as solar and wind, and composting that could help individual urban dwellers do their part in addressing the climate crisis.
The plan and its programs are, without question, positive proposals that frankly should have been developed years earlier.
Now as it begins its implementation, it needs to be further fleshed out, with elements like those included in Lincoln’s plan to address food scarcity, the impact on lower-income residents and even getting people to move to Nebraska as the temperatures rise and climate changes elsewhere.
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