ODOE at 50: History of Oregon Climate Goals
2025 marks 50 years of Oregon Department of Energy public service. As we continue leading Oregon to a safe, equitable, clean, and sustainable future for the next 50 years (and beyond!), we’re taking time to look back and reflect on what got us here.
When the Oregon Department of Energy was created by the Oregon Legislature in 1975, the statute establishing the agency noted that continued growth and demand for non-renewable energy poses a serious and immediate – and future – problem. “It is essential that future generations not be left a legacy of vanished or depleted resources, resulting in massive environmental, social, and financial impact," reads the statute. From the beginning, ODOE was destined to work toward a clean energy future.
Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions research dates back to the early 19th century, with scientists testing how certain gases, like CO2, trap heat. Fast forward to the 20th century, and researchers began documenting rising CO2 levels and how they can increase global temperature. In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted an international treaty to prevent human interference with the global climate system. The treaty specifically sought to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations. The UNFCCC was the foundation for the Paris Agreement that was adopted in 2015, which aims to keep the global average temperature rise this century as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Oregon also has a long history of setting state goals and implementing efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions. In 1990 – two years prior to the original UNFCCC treaty – an Oregon Task Force on Global Warming issued a report to the Governor and Legislature on how global warming could affect Oregon. Two ODOE team members participated on the task force, which determined that climate change from global warming is a serious threat and that Oregon needed to take steps to combat the effects of climate change, including “environmentally benign energy development.”
In 1995, ODOE followed up with a report on reducing Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions, which included a greenhouse gas inventory and other data on CO2, methane, and other harmful GHGs. In the report, ODOE notes that “it will take significantly stronger actions than we initially believed, both at the state and Federal levels” to meet GHG emissions reduction benchmarks. Later in the 1990s, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill regulating CO2 emissions from energy facilities, including a new Energy Facility Siting Standard on CO2 – a standard that remains in place today.
In 2004, a new Governor’s Advisory Group on Global Warming published an Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions with support from ODOE. ODOE’s agency director at the time, Michael Grainey, sat on the advisory group, which emphasized how important it was to address rising greenhouse gas emissions in the state and the globe. The advisory group recommended, for the first time, specific goals for Oregon, including:
By 2010, arrest the growth of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions (including, but not limited to CO2) and begin to reduce them, making measurable progress toward meeting the existing benchmark for CO2 of not exceeding 1990 levels.
By 2020, achieve a 10 percent reduction below 1990 greenhouse gas levels.
By 2050, achieve a “climate stabilization” emissions level at least 75 percent below 1990 levels.
Those goals may look familiar, as they were formally adopted by the Oregon Legislature in 2007 through HB 3543, which also established the Oregon Global Warming Commission and the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute. Over the next almost 20 years now, the commission – which is staffed by the Oregon Department of Energy – issued a number of reports on Oregon’s progress toward the GHG reduction goals, including a Roadmap to 2020 and a Roadmap to 2030, as well as bolstered work around natural and working lands. OCCRI has also issued Oregon Climate Assessments over the years, most recently in January 2025.
Learn more about Executive Order 20-04 in ODOE’s 2020 Implementation Report
In 2020, then-Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-04, which added an interim goal for 2035 and updated the 2050 goal:
Achieve greenhouse gas levels that are 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2035.
Achieve greenhouse gas levels that are at least 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
In 2023, the Legislature passed HB 3409, which modernized the commission and renamed it the Oregon Climate Action Commission. As part of the commission’s Climate Action Roadmap to 2030, the commission recommended a package of bold GHG goal updates:
Oregon will achieve at least a 45 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2030.
Oregon will achieve at least a 70 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2040.
Oregon will achieve at least a 95 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050.
By 2050, or as soon as practicable, Oregon will also achieve net zero emissions and achieve and maintain net negative emissions thereafter.
While those goals have not been formally adopted, it’s clear that Oregon will continue its efforts to reduce emissions and fight climate change.
In addition to establishing goals, Oregon has adopted other bold climate actions, including the Climate Protection Program at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality as well as HB 2021, which established a target to have 100 percent clean electricity from Oregon’s largest utilities and all electricity service suppliers by 2040.
Throughout the years, Oregon’s approach to addressing GHG emissions has evolved as we’ve learned more about the science and potential actions to reduce emissions. Looking back at ODOE’s 1995 report on GHG emissions, the agency said at the time, “ODOE found no way to achieve sufficient reductions from transportation emission[s] through state actions.” In 2025, we now know that supporting transportation electrification and alternative fuels can make a difference in transportation-related emissions. The Oregon Department of Transportation’s Climate Office supports efforts to electrify, and Oregon DEQ offers rebates to Oregonians purchasing eligible zero-emission vehicles. ODOE’s Schools Program supports purchasing electric school buses and charging infrastructure.
As ODOE turns to its next 50 years of public service, we’ll continue our work to lead Oregon to a safe, equitable, clean, and sustainable future.
In August 2025, ODOE released a draft Oregon Energy Strategy, which includes pathways, policies, and actions Oregon could take to achieve its energy policy objectives, including reducing GHG emissions. Learn more and weigh in by September 22!