Full Title: Equity-Focused Climate Strategies for Nevada
Author(s): Elena Krieger, Boris Lukanov, Ana McPhail, Audrey Smith, Annelise Dillon
Publisher(s): Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE)
Publication Date: August 4, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In the face of a warming climate and associated impacts, the State of Nevada is embarking on an ambitious multi-decade effort to dramatically cut carbon emissions while confronting a growing need to build climate resilience. In 2019, the State set targets to expand renewable electricity generation while slashing economy-wide greenhouse emissions. It is now developing pathways and policies to achieve these goals.
Nevada’s current fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure, however, is not only a source of greenhouse gas emissions, but also releases emissions of health-damaging air pollutants across the state. Furthermore, low-income households often struggle to pay for the electricity and fuels they rely on to power their homes and vehicles. People of color historically face racialized discriminatory practices such as housing redlining, and lack of capital and access to financing for homeownership and energy efficiency upgrades. Renters, a substantial population in Nevada, depend on landlords for clean and efficient appliances and homes. These and many other social inequities impact every sector of the economy, and decarbonization efforts should consider these existing disparities in order to develop clean energy transition strategies that distribute benefits more evenly across the Nevada population.