Hawaii

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To get to zero by 2050, Hawaii must cut climate pollution by
0.8 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent a year.

Emissions in Hawaii

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it.

Hawaii's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    3% of Hawaii's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    ...in all of Hawaii's 253,000 buildings.

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 253,000 dirty buildings in Hawaii. That's around 9,000 per year.

    Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 3% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    51% of Hawaii's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 484,000 vehicles in Hawaii and 11,000 are already electric (2.2% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 473,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 17,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.2.2% have been electrified, and the remaining 97.8% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 51% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    28% of Hawaii's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Hawaii

    1 coal plant

    Name: AES Hawaii County: Honolulu Megawatt Capacity: 203 Utility: AES Hawaii LLC

    AES Hawaii
    Honolulu County
    203 MW

    18 oil plants

    Name: Kahe County: Honolulu Megawatt Capacity: 610 Utility: Hawaiian Electric Co Inc

    Kahe
    Honolulu County
    610 MW

    Name: Waiau County: Honolulu Megawatt Capacity: 475 Utility: Hawaiian Electric Co Inc

    Waiau
    Honolulu County
    475 MW

    Name: Kalaeloa Cogen Plant County: Honolulu Megawatt Capacity: 299 Utility: Kalaeloa Partners LP

    Kalaeloa Cogen Plant
    Honolulu County
    299 MW

    Name: Maalaea County: Maui Megawatt Capacity: 230 Utility: Maui Electric Co Ltd

    Maalaea
    Maui County
    230 MW

    ...and 14 more

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 324 Megawatts of wind power and 445 Megawatts of solar power.

    Since Hawaii already has 77 Megawatts of wind and 205 Megawatts of solar, that's 241 Megawatts of wind power we need to build and 241 Megawatts of solar power. That's around 9 Megawatts of wind power and 9 Megawatts of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed targetGeneration builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 58% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of targetGeneration Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 28% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 19%🔌 Power: 28%🚗 Transport: 51%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    The last 19% of Hawaii's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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