EPA has not made its full draft inventory of greenhouse gas emissions available for public comment, raising questions about whether it will submit the detailed report of climate pollution sources by the deadline in one week, or end a decadeslong run required by a 30-year-old treaty.
The agency has until April 15 to finalize the sprawling, 10-chapter report to the United Nations.
EPA published a notice in the Federal Register on Jan. 15, saying it would release chapters of the inventory on a “rolling basis” in its docket by Feb. 13. The agency had customarily released a draft of the emissions tally about two months before it was required to send it to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The inventories, which are submitted by all developed countries, account for human-made emissions of seven heat-trapping gases and the so-called sinks that prevent some of the gases from entering the atmosphere, such as forests. There is a two-year lag in the report, so this year’s inventory is for emissions in 2023.
