Meaningful Climate-Change Mitigation Policy Requires Accurate Measurement: Analysis and Critique of EPA Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Reporting Equations

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that some institutional organizations (corporations, government entities, NGOs, universities, and so forth) report annually the amount of different greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions generated. The organizations are to select and utilize various EPA equations for calculating various kinds of GHG emissions. That database is then available to plan for climate-change mitigation. The simplistic linear production functions expressed in the equations, along with exemptions, allows for the totals reported by EPA for carbon dioxide, methane, and the other GHG emissions to be significantly understated. Although understated, that database is utilized by various agencies of government in the United States for policy mitigation and in negotiations with other countries. Because meaningful climate-change mitigation policy requires accurate measurement, the purpose here is the analysis and critique of EPA equations for reporting greenhouse-gas emissions and to offer advice about what EPA ought to be doing.