Now that the federal government has officially abandoned all climate goals, climate action in the United States has shifted to states and local governments.

We looked at the goals set by both First Global Stocktake (GST1), a technical assessment from the COP28 meeting in Dubai (2023), and Drawdown, a U.S. nonprofit that analyzes the science behind climate solutions, to identify the four goals that can have the most impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Goal 1. Triple renewable energy capacity

In 2024 42% of U.S. electricity was generated from low-carbon sources (including hydropower and nuclear) and 17% from wind and solar. Hydropower and nuclear are slow and expensive to expand, so short-term growth in renewable energy will probably mean building a lot more wind and solar.

Over time each state has evolved its own unique patchwork of electricity sources and developed different degrees of interconnection with its neighbors’ grids. Each state has its own hurdles and opportunities on the path to renewable energy. Some have untapped renewable energy potential, while others may need to import it from neighbors. New York is actively developing off-shore wind power. Solar is the growth renewable in California – both within the state and from southern Arizona. Florida is dependent on gas currently, but is potentially rich in solar. Texas, sometimes called the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, is the top electricity producing state and exports to neighboring states and Mexico.

Local Action: Find the data for your state by entering the name in the Search bar on this page, and compare it to your state’s renewable energy plan, if it has one. An interesting extra piece of information might be the trend in electricity prices in your state. Promote rooftop solar, agrivoltaics, and other renewable energy sources that are compatible with your area.

Goal 2. Double the rate of energy efficiency improvements

Livermore National Laboratory estimated in 2022 that 67.3% of all of the energy generated in the United States is wasted. In other words, only 32.7% of the energy generated from all sources ends up doing something useful, or what’s called an energy service. Energy efficiency is defined here as “..providing the same or better service using less energy.”

Most of the lost energy in the U.S. system comes from transporting and burning fossil fuels, either to make electricity or to burn directly for end uses like industrial processes, building services or transportation.

While the first goal will increase renewable energy, thus improving the efficiency of electrical generation, this second goal  needs to cover the other uses of fossil fuels. Buildings and industrial processes are responsible for about 32% of U.S. CO2 emissions and another 39% are emitted from transportation. Electrifying these end uses increases efficiency and would accomplish about half of this goal

Transportation, the largest U.S. emissions sector, is the most dependent on fossil fuels and the most wasteful in terms of energy use. Most of the energy of a gallon of gasoline used by a combustion engine is wasted as heat or mechanical losses; only 20% of original energy actually turns the wheels. In electric vehicles about 90% of the energy in the battery is used for moving the car and only about 10% is lost.

Local Action: Encourage programs to electrify buildings and transportation.

Goal 3. Cut methane emissions  

Reducing methane emissions causes short-term atmospheric cooling, so Drawdown includes this action as an emergency brake — more beneficial in the short-term compared to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

A methane (CH4) molecule in the atmosphere causes 28 to 80 times as much warming as a CO2 molecule. But methane is short-lived (half-life of about 10 years), while CO2 stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Since methane breaks down quickly, reducing new methane emissions allows the total methane concentration in the atmosphere to decrease, reducing its total heating potential in the short term. But the only way to keep warming stable below 2°C in the long term is to reach a net-zero carbon equilibrium by cutting emissions of the long-lived CO2. We have to do both.

According to the EPA, about 34% of U.S. methane is emitted by the fossil-fuel industry during the processes of mining, refining and distributing coal, oil and natural gas. Another 56% is emitted from human-caused waste streams and agriculture. Large sources of methane emissions include landfills, dairy and cattle farms, rice fields and manure ponds.

In the past methane emission sources were hard to find and to measure. Now, spectrometers on satellites can detect the largest sources, and the data is mapped on public websites like EMIT and Carbon Mapper.

Personal Action: Cut back on food waste, beef and dairy consumption, along with reducing flying. The impact of these changes could add up to as much as 10% reduction in emissions.

Switch household natural gas appliances for electric.

Local Action: Identify any large sources of methane in your area, and urge your state legislature to follow the lead of states like New Mexico and Colorado by enacting state laws limiting methane emissions from oil and gas extraction operations. Advocate for better landfill and animal agriculture practices to reduce emissions.

Goal 4. Protect and restore natural ecosystems

Drawdown identified stopping deforestation as an “Emergency Brake.” Forests are vast carbon sinks, keeping carbon locked up in roots and tree trunks and out of the atmosphere. In spring and summer the leaves of deciduous trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere, as seen in the famous sawtooth pattern of NOAA’s CO2 measurements on Mauna Loa. Keeping forests intact and healthy with practices like prescribed burning may also prevent hotter and more catastrophic forest fires. This would activate another Drawdown emergency brake: to reduce the emissions of soot, also called black carbon or particulates.

Protecting all ecosystems that sequester carbon will help tackle the biodiversity crisis at the same time. Drawdown identifies the ecosystems most important to climate as forest, wetlands, grasslands, peatlands and seaweed forests.

A global campaign to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (called 30×30) was boosted in the United States by a Biden program called America the Beautiful. Although now cancelled by the Trump administration, America the Beautiful helped start 30×30 campaigns in many states which are still active and have brought conservation and biodiversity nonprofits to work together.

Each 30×30 state campaign protects a variety of habitats and species, depending on the natural ecosystems found in that state.

Local Action: Get involved in your state’s 30×30 campaign or in county-level habitat conservation plans.