Reported emissions from the Electronics Manufacturing sector decreased from 7 MMT CO2e in 2011 to 6.3 MMT CO2e in 2018, a decrease of 9.2 percent. Emissions decreased 25.4 percent from 2011 to 2013, due primarily to a large reduction in combustion emissions at one plant. Emissions increased after 2013, due in part to a rule revision that changed the emission factors used by facilities to estimate emissions, resulting in higher estimated emissions. The increasing complexity of semiconductor products (necessitating an increase in the use of fluorinated GHGs in the manufacturing process) may have also contributed to the increase in reported emissions between 2011 and 2013.
Reported emissions for 2014 through 2018 have remained fairly stable, with emissions fluctuating by only 0.1 to 0.2 MMT CO2e per year. The lowest emissions reported during this period were reported in 2016 (6.2 MMT CO2e) and 2017 (6.1 MMT CO2e). The lower emissions during these years are likely due to a decrease in the number reporters, which dropped from a high of 59 in 2014 to a low of 45 in 2017. In 2018, the reported emissions increased by almost 4 percent to a high of 6.3 MMT CO2e and the number of facilities reporting increased to 49.