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Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan

The Climate Action Plan cover page Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2021 outlines a pathway to reaching Pennsylvania’s greenhouse gas reduction goals: 26 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels.  Read the complete plan or a booklet overview.

Watch the Climate Action Plan announcement by the Departments of Environmental Protection, Transportation, Agriculture, and Conservation and Natural Resources.

The plan identifies 18 strategies—in electricity generation, transportation, agriculture, fuel supply, and residential and commercial buildings—that quantitative modeling shows will meet those goals. For each strategy, the time frame for implementation (within 5 years, 5-10 years, or beyond), amount of greenhouse gas reduction it’ll achieve, and related economic costs and benefits are presented. In addition, a number of emerging enabling technologies that can help, such as battery storage, are discussed.

Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2021 also charts specific adaptation pathways for priority climate change hazards identified in Pennsylvania Climate Impacts Assessment 2021 as already impacting Pennsylvania and projected to worsen if we don’t reduce emissions. Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2021 was developed with a focus on human health and equity throughout.

As required by the Pennsylvania Climate Change Act of 2008, the DEP and the Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) produced this Climate Action Plan and submitted it to the Governor in 2021. This plan:

  • identifies greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and sequestration trends and baselines in the Commonwealth;
  • evaluates cost-effective strategies for reducing or offsetting GHG emissions;
  • identifies costs, benefits and co-benefits of reduction strategies recommended;
  • identifies areas of agreement and disagreement among committee members; and
  • recommends to the General Assembly legislative changes necessary to implement the Action Plan.
  • In addition, the DEP and CCAC are required to update the plan every three years.

Read the latest plan:

Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2021 (PDF)

Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2021 Summary Booklet (PDF)

Previous Climate Action Plans:

Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2018 (PDF)

Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2018 Summary Booklet (PDF)

In order to make the Climate Action Plan more accessible to all, this PowerPoint presentation and associated webinar recording has been made available in Spanish. The presentation was recorded in June 2020 for Esperanza, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia whose mission is to strengthen Hispanic communities.

Energy Assessment Report for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

The Energy Assessment Report for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania helped to inform the development of our Climate Action Plan 2018, as it characterizes current, future, and potential energy trajectories in Pennsylvania. In this report, technical and economic potential of Pennsylvania's available energy resources is assessed from 2016 through 2050. The following questions are addressed in the report:

  • What will Pennsylvania's energy, economic, and environmental future look like in the absence of additional action? 
  • Does Pennsylvania have the in-state resources to meet energy demand now and in the future? 
  • How and where should the Commonwealth focus its efforts to encourage clean, diverse energy sources and minimize contributions to climate change? 
  • What energy opportunities can the Commonwealth use to its economic advantage in the future?