--- title: Pollution Got Worse in 2018 Due to Two Sectors, Study Says description: Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial manufacturing, commercial and residential buildings jumped in 2018, according to a research firm. canonical: https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-08T15:53:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:01.103Z article:section: Science og:title: Pollution Got Worse in 2018 Due to Two Sectors, New Study Says og:description: Commercial and residential buildings generated ten percent more emissions og:url: https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt017d062eb723dc85/698942dab21a9c422d4ffdaf/pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pollution Got Worse in 2018 Due to Two Sectors, New Study Says twitter:description: Commercial and residential buildings generated ten percent more emissions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt017d062eb723dc85/698942dab21a9c422d4ffdaf/pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Carbon Emissions See Second Largest Year-On-Year Increase in 20 Years > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Life in the Most Polluted Capital in the World [Watch (HLS stream): Life in the Most Polluted Capital in the World](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/K40JhmZq.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2018-03-22. In Ulan Bator, the capital, respiratory infections have increased at a rate of 270% over the last 10 years and children living in the city have a 40% lower lung function than those living in rural areas, according to UNICEF._ by [Eric Roston / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Eric Roston / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 8, 2019 3:53 PM UTC  An aerial picture taken on Jan. 3, 2019, shows Los Angeles downtown and Hollywood. An aerial picture taken on Jan. 3, 2019, shows Los Angeles downtown and Hollywood. Daniel Slim—AFP/Getty Images by [Eric Roston / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Eric Roston / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 8, 2019 3:53 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — In the debate over climate change, the heaviest polluters — think: power plants, trucks and cars — get the most attention from policy makers. New research suggests a broader view might be called for. A pair of often-overlooked sectors posted the largest rises in carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S. in 2018\. Emissions generated by industrial manufacturing jumped 5.7 percent, according to research firm Rhodium Group. Commercial and residential buildings generated ten percent more emissions. Those increases drove the 3.4 percent rise in overall pollution, the second-biggest year-over-year increase in the past 20 years. Transportation, which remains the U.S. economy’s largest source of carbon-dioxide, rose about 1 percent. The increase in pollution from buildings highlights a particular problem for policy makers. It’s strongly related to the weather — a warmer winter in 2017 suppressed demand for heating fuel and makes the return to normal in 2018 look like a spike. And while regulators can raise efficiency standards and change building codes for new construction, there’s not much they can do to control energy use in existing homes and offices. Manufacturing production increased last year, buoyed by a generally robust economy. But great news for factories can be a headache for carbon-cutters. “The industrial sector is still almost entirely ignored” by climate policy makers, the Rhodium authors write. These “forgotten sectors,” as the Rhodium authors call them, together make up about a third of U.S. carbon dioxide, with industrial sources contributing 22 percent and buildings 11 percent in 2016, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ SOUND ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/"},"headline":"U.S. Carbon Emissions See Second Largest Year-On-Year Increase in 20 Years","datePublished":"2019-01-08T15:53:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:01.103Z","description":"Commercial and residential buildings generated ten percent more emissions","url":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/","keywords":["Pollution","Environment","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt017d062eb723dc85/698942dab21a9c422d4ffdaf/pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Roston / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt017d062eb723dc85/698942dab21a9c422d4ffdaf/pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"pollution-rises-manufacturing-buildings","caption":"Los Angeles downtown and Hollywood","creditText":"Daniel Slim—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pollution/","name":"Pollution"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/","name":"U.S. Carbon Emissions See Second Largest Year-On-Year Increase in 20 Years"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Life in the Most Polluted Capital in the World","description":"In Ulan Bator, the capital, respiratory infections have increased at a rate of 270% over the last 10 years and children living in the city have a 40% lower lung function than those living in rural areas, according to UNICEF.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/K40JhmZq/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-03-22T10:18:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/K40JhmZq.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/","duration":"PT2M39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5496630/pollution-manufacturing-buildings-2018-study/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```