Tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is critical for cities to address climate change and identify emission sources. Since 2019, which is the newly established baseline in alignment with the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), the city has reduced its emissions by 8%, but has made significant progress since originally tracking in 2009. For the 2023 inventory, the energy sector is the largest emitter at 67.23% and the transportation sector following at 33.86%.

As we develop a new climate plan, Climate Resilient ATL, there will be a hyper focus on building a more equitable, healthy, and livable Atlanta that will incorporate population growth and science based targets. The actions laid out in the plan will incorporate mitigation, which includes decreasing GHG emissions and adaptation, which incorporates reducing vulnerability to current and expected impacts of climate change like weather extremes or hazards, biodiversity loss, or food and water insecurity.