DENVER — Today, Conservation Colorado Education Fund, GreenLatinos, NAACP CO-MT-WY State Conference, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Western Resource Advocates released a comprehensive study conducted by Sustainability Solutions Group (SSG) evaluating Colorado’s current climate policies. The report analyzes six scenarios, including four pathways to meet the state’s long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. This study evaluates the progress expected from Colorado’s existing climate and energy policies and examines additional actions needed to meet the state’s science-based statutory emissions reduction goals. The data shows that taking action to reduce emissions provides significant economic benefits to Coloradans:

• Delaying the adoption of new climate policies, or worse, rolling back existing clean energy policies, are the most expensive scenarios.
• Without further action, Colorado will not meet the statutory climate targets, and near-term reductions are especially critical.
• Meeting statutory GHG emission reduction goals is achievable, economically beneficial and dramatically reduces local air pollution.
• In every scenario that takes action to reduce emissions, Coloradans’ energy bills are lower and fewer households are energy cost-burdened.

If Colorado continues to take action, families would spend less on energy, and fewer homes would struggle with high energy bills. The study confirms that Colorado is on the right track, but without additional action, the state will fall short of its statutory climate targets in 2030 and the years following.

“Over the last 25 years, Colorado has been a leader in reducing climate-warming pollution, and these actions have been a critical part of our economy and decreasing harmful air pollution. The new leaders who take office in January 2027 will determine our state’s climate and conservation future,” said Katie Belgard, vice president of programs at Conservation Colorado Education Fund. “This study proves climate policies that provide deep reductions in climate pollution and harmful air pollution can help save Colorado families money and protect our state from the impacts of climate change like drought, wildfires and worsening air quality. There is no reason why we should shy away from holding corporate polluters accountable and continuing to take action.”

Colorado’s air quality worsens every year, as the “brown cloud” frequently hides our mountains and the Front Range. All four low-carbon pathways analyzed in the study meet Colorado’s long-term climate goals after 2030 and make the air much cleaner. In three out of four low-carbon scenarios, harmful pollutants are significantly reduced by 2040 and almost disappear by 2050.

Earlier this year, Conservation Colorado released a poll of 800 Colorado voters that showed Coloradans support stronger enforcement against big polluters, including holding corporate polluters accountable for cleaning up Colorado’s most polluted communities.

The study released today found that moving to clean energy saves Coloradans money in the first year and every year after, when financed properly. From now through 2050, the low-carbon scenarios modeled in the study show net savings between $20 billion and $56 billion. When the analysis also quantifies the economic benefits associated with avoided climate change impacts, net economic benefits are more than $600 billion in every scenario.

SSG’s analysis looked at six future scenarios:

1. “Business-as-Planned” (BAP) Scenario: This scenario assesses the impact of current, enforceable clean energy policies, including all statutory and regulatory requirements. It specifically excludes policies that are aspirational goals or are not yet enforceable.
2. “Reference Case” Scenario: This scenario freezes the status quo and assumes no additional changes in energy creation or usage patterns. It is designed to provide a comparison of the impact of existing policies on various outcomes.
3. Low Carbon 1 (LC 1): This scenario assumes a future with high energy efficiency and high electrification. It prioritizes policies such as rapid decarbonization of the electric sector; electrification of buildings, transportation and industry; deep energy retrofits of existing buildings; and high efficiency in new buildings.
4. Low Carbon 2 (LC 2): This scenario reflects a “low-carbon fuels” future. It includes significant electrification and energy efficiency, but at a lower level than LC 1, and includes higher utilization of low-carbon fuels such as renewable natural gas and green hydrogen.
5. Low Carbon 3 (LC 3): This scenario prioritizes the emission reductions that cost the least first. Because all low-carbon scenarios must meet net-zero emissions in 2050, LC 3 ultimately utilizes almost all of the same measures deployed in LC 1, but accelerates the lowest-cost reduction opportunities and delays deployment of relatively more expensive reduction opportunities.
6. Low Carbon 4 (LC 4): This scenario sets pollution goals for each industry, like transportation and buildings, with policy and technology interventions for each sector calibrated to achieve those sector-specific reductions. The emission reductions by sector add up to the economy-wide goals.

As modeled in the low-carbon scenarios, if Colorado takes action, families would spend less on energy and fewer homes would struggle with high energy bills. Overall, the low-carbon scenarios provide significant economic benefits to Colorado.

The SSG study provides clear policy pathways for realizing these emissions reductions and cost savings:

1. Strong climate policies that cut pollution will lower energy bills and help more families afford power.
2. Policies that focus on electrification of homes, businesses and transportation provide greater economic and pollution benefits than policies with greater reliance on low-carbon fuels to power those end uses.
3. Energy efficiency is important across scenarios. Prioritizing deep energy retrofits of residential homes has a high up-front cost but can significantly cut household energy bills.
4. Policies that prioritize reducing harmful co-pollution together with reductions in GHG emissions, especially in disproportionately impacted communities, are essential to a just climate future.
5. Colorado should focus on the least expensive ways to cut pollution first, no matter which part of the economy they come from. This approach helps reduce total pollution for less money.
6. The report shows that decarbonizing the grid is critical to meeting targets, addressing affordability and reducing pollution.

Colorado has long been a leader on climate policy. In 2004, Coloradans passed the first voter-approved renewable energy standard in the country. In the years that followed, Colorado enacted dozens of clean energy laws that helped our state recover from the Great Recession faster and stronger than other states. Colorado state law requires statewide GHG emissions to be reduced by 50% in 2030 and 100% net zero by 2050 (relative to 2005 emissions levels). Every year since then, Colorado has adopted policies that are creating durable models of progress. This study shows that Colorado can continue to build on this success by electing leaders who prioritize protecting our air and water, reducing air pollution and addressing climate change’s impacts — like drought and wildfires — on people and their wallets.