Arizona

Back to map

To get to zero by 2050, Arizona must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in Arizona

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) [?] equivalent (MTCO2e [?]) emissions

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

This is how we're going to do it

Arizona's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    5% of Arizona'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...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps [?]
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves [?]

    ...in all of Arizona's 2.7 million buildings.

    In fact, 57% of appliances in buildings in Arizona are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 1.2 million dirty buildings in Arizona. That's around 43,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.57.25% have been electrified, and the remaining 42.75% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 5% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    33% of Arizona'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 2.4 million vehicles in Arizona and 29,000 are already electric (1.2% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 2.4 million gas-powered vehicles. That's around 88,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.1.2% have been electrified, and the remaining 98.8% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 33% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    45% of Arizona'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 Arizona

    4 coal plants

    Name: Navajo Generating Station County: Coconino Megawatt Capacity: 2,409 Utility: Salt River Project

    Navajo Generating Station
    Coconino County
    2,409 MW

    Name: Springerville Generating Station County: Apache Megawatt Capacity: 2,179 Utility: Tucson Electric Power Co

    Springerville Generating Station
    Apache County
    2,179 MW

    Name: Cholla County: Navajo Megawatt Capacity: 1,129 Utility: Arizona Public Service Co

    Cholla
    Navajo County
    1,129 MW

    Name: Coronado Generating Station County: Apache Megawatt Capacity: 822 Utility: Salt River Project

    Coronado Generating Station
    Apache County
    822 MW

    28 gas plants

    Name: Gila River Power Station County: Maricopa Megawatt Capacity: 1,857 Utility: Salt River Project

    Gila River Power Station
    Maricopa County
    1,857 MW

    Name: Mesquite Generating Station County: Maricopa Megawatt Capacity: 1,383 Utility: Salt River Project

    Mesquite Generating Station
    Maricopa County
    1,383 MW

    Name: APS West Phoenix Power Plant County: Maricopa Megawatt Capacity: 1,327 Utility: Arizona Public Service Co

    APS West Phoenix Power Plant
    Maricopa County
    1,327 MW

    Name: Santan County: Maricopa Megawatt Capacity: 1,326 Utility: Salt River Project

    Santan
    Maricopa County
    1,326 MW

    ...and 24 more

    1 oil plant

    Name: Douglas County: Cochise Megawatt Capacity: 26 Utility: Arizona Public Service Co

    Douglas
    Cochise County
    26 MW

    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 6,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 7,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Arizona would need to install about 2,000 turbines.

    Since Arizona already has 183 MW of wind and 1,000 MW of solar, that's 6,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 6,000 MW of solar power. That's around 221 MW of wind power and 231 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 17.5% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 45% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 17%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 33%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    The last 17% of Arizona'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

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification [?] doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

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

Take Action