Salt Lake City's Carbon Footprint

Salt Lake City residents emitted an average of 2.5 metric tons of carbon per year for highway transportation and residential energy use in 2005, according to a recent Brookings Institution report, "Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America". In the study of the per-capita carbon footprint of 100 metropolitan areas in the United States, Salt Lake City was number 50. This compares with 2.24 tons of carbon emitted by the average metro resident from transportation and residential energy. Residents in the largest metro areas emit less carbon than the average American, who emits 2.6 metric tons. In 2005, the lowest per-capita emitting cities of the 100 were Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Portland, while the highest were Indianopolis and Lexington-Fayette, KY.

Salt Lakers' footprint decreased 3.88 percent between 2000 and 2005. Interestingly, although the portion of the footprint due to transportation use went up 9.9 percent, the portion due to residential use went down 18.3 percent.

The Brookings report cited "significant policy leadership" from states and cities producing a "staggering" diversity of activities. Mentioned in the report were the Western Climate Initiative and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, with participation from Utah and Salt Lake City, respectively. The report called for expanded federal action to decrease the energy intensity and carbon intensity of the U.S. economy and cited numerous federal policy failures.