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A life-cycle carbon footprint of Yosemite National Park

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  • Villalba, Gara
  • Tarnay, Leland
  • Campbell, Elliott
  • Gabarrell, Xavier

Abstract

Like cities, many large national parks in the United States often include “urban” visitor and residential areas that mostly demand (rather than produce) energy and key urban materials. The U.S. National Park Service has committed to quantifying and reducing scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 35% and scope 3 emissions by 10% by 2020 for all parks. Current inventories however do not provide the specificity or granularity to evaluate solutions that address fundamental inefficiencies in these inventories. By quantifying and comparing the importance of different inventory sectors as well as upstream and downstream emissions in Yosemite National Park (YNP), this carbon footprint provides a case study and potential template for quantifying future emissions reductions, and for evaluating tradeoffs between them. Results indicate that visitor-related emissions comprise the largest fraction of the Yosemite carbon footprint, and that increases in annual visitation (3.43–3.90 million) coincide with and likely drive interannual increases in the magnitude of Yosemite′s extended inventory (126,000–130,000tCO2e). Given this, it is recommended that “per visitor” efficiency be used as a metric to track progress. In this respect, YNP has annually decreased kilograms of GHG emissions per visitor from 36.58 (2008) to 32.90 (2011). We discuss opportunities for reducing this measure further.

Suggested Citation

  • Villalba, Gara & Tarnay, Leland & Campbell, Elliott & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2013. "A life-cycle carbon footprint of Yosemite National Park," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1336-1343.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:62:y:2013:i:c:p:1336-1343
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.024
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    1. Kennedy, Christopher & Steinberger, Julia & Gasson, Barrie & Hansen, Yvonne & Hillman, Timothy & Havránek, Miroslav & Pataki, Diane & Phdungsilp, Aumnad & Ramaswami, Anu & Mendez, Gara Villalba, 2010. "Methodology for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions from global cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4828-4837, September.
    2. Meier, Paul J. & Wilson, Paul P. H. & Kulcinski, Gerald L. & Denholm, Paul L., 2005. "US electric industry response to carbon constraint: a life-cycle assessment of supply side alternatives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1099-1108, June.
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    1. Dan He & Ke Chen & Tingting Zhang & Mingfang Yin & Xiaoliang Shi & Zhe Xu, 2021. "Regional CO 2 Budget and Abatement Countermeasures for Forest Scenic Spots: A Case Study of the Shenyang National Forest Park," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Li Zhao & Mingxi Du & Wei Du & Jiahuan Guo & Ziyan Liao & Xiang Kang & Qiuyu Liu, 2022. "Evaluation of the Carbon Sink Capacity of the Proposed Kunlun Mountain National Park," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.

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