Home to about 10.5 million people and stretching almost 50 thousand square miles, North Carolina is the 28th largest state by area and 9thmost populous. It’s mountainous western landscape eases to coastal plains in the east, where the state boasts 322 miles of coastline and, at over 12 thousand miles, the second-largest estuarine system in the country. Off North Carolina’s coast are the Outer Banks, the site of the first European colony in the 1500s, which are now rapidly disappearing into the Atlantic Ocean as the sea levels rise. North Carolina is also home to 8 Native American tribes and 4 urban Indian organizations. Among those are the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who have reclaimed a sovereign nation of 100 square miles.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
- Temperatures in North Carolina have risen over 1 degree (F)since the beginning of the 20th century. •Both coastal and inland flooding are urgent threats in North Carolina. Sea levels along the Atlantic Coast are rising even more rapidly than elsewhere, because the coast is also sinking due to erosion. Higher sea levels also make it more likely that storm surges breach barriers — a concern as tropical storms and hurricanes intensify in warmer waters.
- Since 1958, the amount of precipitation during heavy rainstorms has increased 27% in the Southeast, a trend that is projected to continue.
- Clearly no stranger to hurricanes and wet weather, North Carolina has been hit exceptionally hard in recent years. Hurricane Florence (September, 2018) caused at least $13 billion in damages, as well as knocking out power for 1.1 million North Carolinians, and costing 142 people their lives. It hit as the state was still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Matthew (2016), which created widespread flooding, much of which lingered for weeks after the rains had stopped — the soil too saturated to allow water to infiltrate and the slope of the land too shallow to create much possibility for drainage. And, then came Hurricane Michael (October, 2018), knocking out power for thousands and flooding the Northern Outer Banks. Dorianwas the one to remember in 2019 as was Isaiasin August, 2020, bringing 15 tornadoes along with it.
- In September 2024, Hurricane Helene first hit Florida and then moved into southern Appalachia. One of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history and the deadliest since Katrina, Hurricane Helene caused historic flooding and produced 40 trillion gallons of rainfall, enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys stadium 51,300 times, fill more than 60 million Olympic swimming pools, and cover the entire state of North Carolina in 3.5 feet of water. Some of the worst devastation occurred in places far from the coast, like Asheville, NC, which had previously been hailed as a “climate-safe city.”Devastating floods made much of Asheville unrecognizable, forever changing the city. Scientists say Helene’s devastating rainfall was likely intensified by climate change, predicting that climate change produced over 50% more rainfallin Hurricane Helene, with record-hot waters in the Gulf intensifying its strength. The devastation in Asheville, NC, a city previously called a “climate haven,”reveals that nowhere is immune from the impacts of climate change and some scientists are calling it a “climate wake-up call.”
- As oceans warm, hurricanes will get wetter and heavier, primed to dispense thousands of gallons on coastal regions and low-lying areas, flooding homes, destroying infrastructure, and endangering lives.
ENERGY
North Carolina consumes 4 times more energy than it produces even as energy consumption is among the lowest one-third of the states.
Natural gas reached a record high in North Carolina in 2023, generating 43% of the state’s total electricity. Natural gas exceeded coal fired generation for the first time in 2016. North Carolina is one of the top five states in the nation for nuclear energy, which provided 32% of electricity generation in 2023. Before 2012, coal generated the majority of electricity in North Carolina, but over thirty coal-fired power plants have retired since 2010 and coal generated 11% of electricity in 2023. Meanwhile, renewables generated 14% of total electricity in 2023. This was largely from solar power (9%) which has been the largest source of the state’s renewable electricity since it surpassed hydropower in 2017. North Carolina is fourth in the nation for solar power generation and capacity, behind California, Texas and Florida. Hydropower contributed 3% of the state’s total electricity generation in 2023, while biomass was 1% and wind energy was 0.4%.
CLEAN ENERGY ACHIEVEMENTS
Since 2016, North Carolina has spent over $24 billion in clean energy workforce investment and added more than 20,000 clean energy jobs, making it 9th in the nation for clean energy jobs. In 2024, the state received almost $1 billion in federal funding for clean energy initiatives in areas like conservation, community solar, and electric school buses.
LEGISLATION
- North Carolina was the first state in the Southeast to adopt a Renewable Energy Standard in 2007. The RES, signed into law by Governor Mike Easley requires investor-owned utilities to meet 12.5% of their sales from renewable energy by 2021, while rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric suppliers were required to meet 10% by 2018. Both of these targets were met.
- In 2020, North Carolina released its Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, the culmination of an interdisciplinary effort mandated in 2018 by Governor Roy Cooper. This is the state’s first adaptation plan and includes vulnerability assessments across 11 sectors, climate justice concerns and strategies, and recommendations for nature-based solutions to enhance ecosystem resiliency and carbon sequestering. Governor Cooper’s 2018 Executive Order also established the NC Climate Change Interagency Council.
- In October 2021, Governor Cooper signed House Bill 951turning a compromise on North Carolina’s energy future between his office and legislative Republicans into law. A milestone energy bill, it aimed to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s power plants, setting carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets of 70% from 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050 for Duke Energy. This revised version of House Bill 951will shape North Carolina’s energy mix for decades. In a ceremony with legislators from both parties, Governor Cooper enacted a law that tasked the state Utilities Commission with coming up by the end of 2022 with the arrangements to meet the carbon dioxide reduction goals sought by the governor.
- In January 2022, Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order No. 246: North Carolina’s Transformation to a Clean, Equitable Economywhich set ambitious targets of a 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. E.O. 246 also set targets of 1.25 million zero-emission vehicles registered by 2030, established actions to increase workforce diversity and expand youth apprenticeship programs in clean energy, and mandated regular updates to statewide GHG inventories. In order to meet these goals, E.O. 246 directed the development of three comprehensive plans. To meet the order’s workforce diversity goals, the state released a Climate Change Workforce Diversity Reportin December 2022. The Executive Order called for a decarbonization plan which was released as the North Carolina Deep Decarbonization Pathways Analysisin February 2023. The analysis finds that across all scenarios, meeting its decarbonization targets will require North Carolina to transform every sector of its economy.
- TheNorth Carolina Clean Transportation Plan,released in April 2023, includes key recommendations to meet E.O. 246’s transportation targets, such as partnering with electric utilities to promote clean transportation, creating a dedicated clean transportation team, and prioritizing infrastructure investments for traditionally underserved communities.
- North Carolina releases annual strategy reportscombining updates and progress for the 2020 Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan and the targets outlined in Executive Order 80 and Executive Order 246.
- On March 1, 2024 the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality released its North Carolina Priority Climate Action Plan(PCAP) under the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program. The PCAP includes a GHG emissions inventory, GHG reduction measures, and a low-income/disadvantaged communities benefits analysis.
COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER STATES
North Carolina is one of twenty-four states, along with Puerto Rico, committed to the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is working to implement policies that advance the goals of the Paris Agreement.
