ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Climate change is a global threat, but its impacts are felt right here in the Lehigh Valley — from higher temperatures and extreme weather to flooding, property damage and more.
“Our region now, including our neighboring counties, is over 860,000 people, so we're getting pretty close to a million,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. “ … We're a successful region, as everyone knows, and that's great for growing a family, growing a business — as a result, thousands of more people and businesses are coming here every year. All of them contribute to emissions.
“But that growth comes from being an attractive region, and it doesn't have to mean more emissions.”
Bradley, alongside other officials, on Tuesday released the latest Greater Lehigh Valley Greenhouse Gas Inventory. An estimate of all the carbon emissions being released across the region, the report also details which sectors — like transportation, residential, commercial and industrial — are contributing the most.
The findings will form the foundation for the commission's next project, a regional Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, set to be released next summer.
“Then the next step — get off of our backsides and do something about it. It’s a problem that can be solved.”Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong
“A lot of work went into this, and why?” Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong said. "Well, because if we don't get together, we all live here together, and then that gives the burden to all of us to get together, to work together, to make sure we know the problem, where is the problem."
“Then the next step — get off of our backsides and do something about it. It’s a problem that can be solved.”
Decarbonizing the Lehigh Valley
While the LVPC and other organizations have been leading regional efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change for more than a decade, the last couple of years has seen an acceleration as more federal funding has become available.
In early 2023, commission officials announced they had received a $1 million infusion of federal funds after officials opted into the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
The funding came a little over a month after LVPC published its last greenhouse gas assessment. The study showed the Valley’s 2019 emissions made up just shy of 4% of the Commonwealth’s total gross greenhouse gas emissions.
About 35% of the Valley’s total emissions were attributed to industrial electricity and natural gas, while about 27% was from transportation and mobile sources, according to the study.
With the federal funding, the LVPC was tasked with creating a Priority Climate Action Plan, or PCAP, focused on transportation decarbonization, as well as a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, or CCAP. The former was due earlier this year, while the latter is expected to be adopted in August.
The PCAP encompasses the entire Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties in Pennsylvania, as well as New Jersey’s Warren County.
There are six priority measures outlined in the more than 100-page plan “specifically tailored for transportation decarbonization.” Only those included in the PCAP could be eligible for implementation grants.
They include:
- Implementing priority bicycle commuting corridors and catalytic projects, and priority sidewalk gaps as proposed in Walk/RollLV.
- Increasing transit ridership above current levels in the Lehigh Valley
- Increasing development of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) of all types in the region from 2022 baseline figures.
- Increasing the number and geographic distribution of alternative fueling stations in the region.
- Reimagining and retrofitting major transportation corridors, including Route 22, Route 33, Interstate 78 (I-78), and Interstate 476 (I-476 Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike) to include additional green spaces, enhanced native and noninvasive landscaping and tree canopy and nature-based stormwater management practices.
- Implementing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology to reduce congestion, support uniform traffic control standards and encourage trip planning technology applications for all modes of travel.
Each measure includes targets, estimates for greenhouse gas reduction, as well as a description of low income and disadvantaged communities would benefit.
At least 40% of the benefits from grant funding must occur in low-income and disadvantaged communities as defined in the White House's Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.
The Valley’s three major cities — Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem — are all considered “disadvantaged,” according to the screening tool, described as “overburdened and underserved.”
Unfortunately, while the plan was accepted by the EPA, the region was shut out from an IRA pool of $4.6 billion in implementation funding.
Asked about the grants Tuesday afternoon, Bradley said “a lot of the stuff that we were doing advocacy-wise ended up happening. We didn't necessarily get a direct grant, but we may be eligible for some statewide funds. They're working all of that through right now.”
Industrial, transportation sectors
Overall, the report shows the region emits 12.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or MTCO₂e, working out to about 14.7 MTCO₂e per resident.
The regional total is a sharp increase from the last assessment, which reported the total annual emissions at 9.86 million MTCO₂e. However, individual emissions remained the same.
There’s a few reasons why, said Christian Martinez, an environmental planner with the commission. First, the new assessment includes the entire Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the previous report only focused on Lehigh and Northampton counties.
“While Lehigh and Northampton definitely have a higher population and higher emissions, it's still a significant number of people that are contributing to emissions from these other two counties that we're including now, so that can definitely be a significant reason for why the emissions are higher,” Martinez said. “The base years were also different. So, with our previous greenhouse gas inventory that was around 2019 data, while this greenhouse gas inventory is 2022 data, so the rebound from COVID, that may play a part as well.”
The industrial and transportation sectors are responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report, at 32.3% and 32.1%, respectively.
“The results of the regional inventory indicate that an effective plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would need to emphasize actions to reduce emissions from industrial electricity and gas, transportation fuel uses and vehicle miles traveled,” according to the report, which includes details on the PCAP, which targets the transportation sector.
“However, all other sources of emissions will need to be considered to reduce the effects of climate change.”
Increases to population and traffic — problems many residents complain about – have solutions in sustainability, said Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds.
“America made a lot of planning mistakes in the 20th century, a lot of them, and we have been slowly unwinding them over the past several decades,” Reynolds said. “To be able to create cities, to be able to create municipalities, to be able to create regions by which we're using the public space as a way to move people around, to bring people together, and not to do things like divide communities, not to be able to do things like create inequities.”
If nothing is done to reduce emissions, officials estimate they could grow to nearly 13.9 million MTCO₂e by 2025 — an increase of 9.3%.
The greenhouse gas inventory acts as a start to the CCAP, Bradley said, and officials want input from residents.
“We're going to be scheduling some workshops with the community,” Bradley said. “And we have a philosophy of building a bigger table. So, if you want to be part of the conversation, you have a seat, and we will bring a chair up for you to sit and be part of that.”
