California’s greenhouse gas emissions have plunged in recent years across most sectors, falling about 2.4 percent in 2022 in comparison to the previous year, state regulators reported on Friday.
The release of such pollutants declined by 9.3 million metric tons during that period, in large part due to the increased usage of clean fuels and zero-emission vehicles, according to the report , issued by the California Air Resources Board.
That improvement from 2021 to 2022 alone is equivalent to removing more than 2.2 million gasoline-powered cars from California’s roads for an entire year, state officials said.
From the year 2000 to 2022, overall emissions dropped by about 20 percent, while the state’s gross domestic production surged by 78 percent, the regulators noted.
“The numbers are clear: our world-leading regulations are reducing emissions, spurring innovation, and bringing us closer to achieving our climate goals,” Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said in a statement .