How much do state agencies spend towards GHG emission reductions?
New analysis provides a methodology to help MDE accurately track and report GHG reduction spending.
Meet the experts!
Juan Pablo Martínez Guzmán, SPP Assistant Professor
Philip G. Joyce, SPP Professor
Kathleen Kennedy, Assistant Research Professor
Nathan Hultman, Director
Martínez Guzmán, J.P., P. Joyce, K. Kennedy, N. Hultman (2023). “State Spending on Greenhouse Gas Reduction In Maryland.” Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland. 28 pp.
- Combined, these agencies are estimated to have spent $463 million on measures to reduce GHG emissions in fiscal year 2023. This represents 7.3% of these agencies’ budgets and 1.2% of the total budget of the state of Maryland.
- On average, agencies estimated that 39.1% of their GHG reduction spending benefited disproportionately affected communities.
- As this is to be an annual inventory of such spending, the report concludes with a number of recommendations that might increase the scope of reporting and enhance the accuracy of the information going forward.
Under the Climate Solutions Now Act (CSNA) of 2022, the Maryland Department of the Environment will analyze the state's spending on reducing greenhouse gases and co-pollutants in the immediately prior fiscal year. This analysis will also highlight the percentage of funding directed toward communities disproportionately affected by these issues.
This new report by the Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland compiles state spending on reducing GHG emissions, on copollutant reductions to the extent possible, and identifies how much of this spending benefits disadvantaged communities. This report also offers a methodology to evaluate Maryland's GHG emission reduction spending and applies it to the previous fiscal year (FY2023) to aid the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).