Alliance members are working to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius by reducing emissions, accelerating action, centering equity, and tracking progress. 

Explore Pennsylvania's policies and actions across the Alliance's 10 key policy areas. Numbers presented below only reflect the number of policies in this database and thus may not reflect all climate policies pursued.

pennsylvania

GHG Targets + Governance

Just Transition + Equity

Industry

Pricing Carbon + Valuing Damages

Electricity

Transportation

Resilience

Natural + Working Lands

Climate Finance

Buildings

total

Act No. 87 of 2024: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Act

The Act authorizes the underground injection and sequestration of CO2; confirms that the surface owner of real property owns the subsurface pore space; gives the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection statutory authority to obtain primacy to issue injection permits; transfers title to stored carbon dioxide to the Commonwealth fifty years after injection ends; and establishes the Carbon Dioxide Storage Facility Fund to defray the Commonwealth’s long-term monitoring and management costs.

CPRG Implementation Grant: Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA)

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection received over $396 million in EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) Program Implementation Funds to establish the State's Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA) program, which will: 
- Accelerate industrial decarbonization by funding shovel-ready projects at hundreds of facilities.  
- Reduce GHG emissions by at least 20% at each selected facility for the medium- and large-scale awards. 
- Leverage between $283 million and $973 million in additional private capital for industrial decarbonization projects. 
- Create high-quality jobs by ensuring prevailing wage requirements as established by the U.S. Department of Labor and apprenticeship requirements are met. 
- Improve air quality by reducing hazardous air pollutants, toxins, and other harmful substances. 
- Enhance the physical and economic wellbeing of low-income and disadvantaged communities. 
- Invest in equitable workforce development activities to meet increased job demands. 
- Provide replicable and scalable strategies to reduce GHG emissions in hard-to-abate sectors.

Pennsylvania Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report 2023

DEP is required by the Pennsylvania Climate Change Act to compile an annual inventory of GHGs emitted in Pennsylvania. The inventory must establish GHG emission trends and contributions of major sectors, including, but not limited to the transportation, electricity generation, industrial, commercial, mineral and natural resources, production of alternative fuel, agricultural and domestic sectors.

In 2020, (the most recent data available for the 2023 Inventory) Pennsylvania was responsible for approximately 238 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) being emitted into the atmosphere. Production and consumption of energy accounted for nearly 90 percent of these emissions. Pennsylvania’s forestry and land use sector sequestered over 24 MMTCO2e in 2020.

Act 213, Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PA Turnpike) released a Request for Proposals to construct a series of solar generation facilities in its right of way areas. The Solar Right-of-Way Project will not only offset the PA Turnpike’s electrical consumption but also contribute surplus energy to the electrical distribution system. Under the agreement’s proposed terms, the PA Turnpike would purchase the generated power, at a predetermined rate, from the vendor for 20 years and retain the associated Solar Alternative Energy Credits (SAECs) to provide additional revenue. This project also helps reduce the PA Turnpike’s environmental footprint.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Solar Right-of-Way Project

RISE PA is a $396 million statewide industrial decarbonization grant program funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grants under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The purpose of this program is to offer grants for small-, medium-, and large-scale decarbonization projects at industrial facilities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and co-pollutant emissions. RISE PA is focused on reducing emissions from Pennsylvania’s industrial sector, which is the highest-emitting sector statewide and accounts for just over 30% of Pennsylvania’s total GHG emissions.