Covanta Energy Corporation, a world leader in sustainable waste management and renewable energy, congratulates President Barack Obama and his administration on the announced Climate Action Plan.

The broad-sweeping plan addresses major sources of carbon pollution as well as other greenhouse gases like methane. A powerful greenhouse gas, methane's potency has led to calls for its immediate reduction by scientists, the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, and now the Obama administration.

"Today's announcement is a significant step forward in addressing the urgent challenge of climate change," said Dr. Paul Gilman, Covanta Energy's chief sustainability officer. "Recent research demonstrates that sustainable waste management is a critical tool in our arsenal, with the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by one billion tons of carbon equivalents every year by 2050 through energy savings and landfill methane avoidance. That reduction is quite significant -- the equivalent of building two million wind turbines or shutting down 1,000 large coal power plants."

Landfills are the third leading source of methane emissions in the U.S. The path to reducing these emissions is already well proven -- the European Union (EU) has already seen significant reductions in GHG emissions through sustainable waste management. Through a focus on recycling, composting, and energy recovery, the EU has already cut its waste sector emissions by a third.

Energy recovery is a critical component of the reductions achieved in the EU and has significant potential in the U.S. According to the U.S. EPA, every ton of municipal solid waste processed at an Energy-from-Waste facility instead of a landfill reduces lifecycle GHG emissions by one ton of carbon dioxide equivalents.

This is possible due to the avoidance of methane from landfills, the offset of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel electrical production, and the recovery of metals for recycling. Covanta's energy-from-waste facilities annually offset approximately 20 million tons of greenhouse gases, the equivalent of the carbon sequestered by planting 460 million trees.

Covanta operates or owns five energy-from-waste facilities in Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery and York counties.

For more information, visit Covanta’s Climate Change webpage.

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