Last week, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released its 2026 update to the North Carolina Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, a biennial report that provides a high-level look at GHG emissions resulting from human activity and contains a detailed accounting of GHGs emitted or removed by key source categories. The inventory finds that between 2005 and 2022, North Carolina reduced gross GHG emissions by approximately 21% and net emissions by 30%, even as North Carolina’s population grew by 23% and real Gross State Product increased by 38% over the same period.
Noting positive trends in both environmental protection and economic growth, DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson remarked that “this report shows that common-sense policies to reduce our state’s carbon emissions have succeeded while our economy has flourished.”
The inventory also projects North Carolina’s GHG emissions from 2023 to 2050 based on predicted changes in fuel use, population, historical trends, and other factors. Net emissions are expected to increase 7% between 2022-2030 before falling through 2050, driven largely by energy production to meet growing electricity demand. By 2050, North Carolina is projected to see a 48% and 64% decrease in gross and net GHG emissions, respectively, relative to 2005.
See DEQ’s press release for more key findings.
