Southeast

Delaware

Delaware’s greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 23% from 2005-2021. The nation’s second-smallest state consumes much more energy than it produces, with most of it used by the industrial sector, as chemical manufacturing and petroleum refining are large contributors to the state’s GDP.

GHG Reduction Targets

All targets relative to 2005 levels

2030

50%

2050

Net-zero

Governor

Matt Meyer (Democrat)

House Party

Democratic Majority

Senate Party

Democratic Majority

Legislative session

1/14/25 - 6/30/25

US Climate Alliance Status

Member

Key Offices & Links

24

Policies Enacted or In Progress

across 6 policy areas

See all

38

Policy Opportunities

across 7 policy areas

See all

Southeast

14 states

This map shows the occurrence of climate policies passed at the state-level. Higher numbers represent more climate policies enacted.

Compare with other states

Progress by Policy Area

Enacted Enacted policies have been passed or established in a state by a governing body via legislation, executive orders, rules, regulations, and/or other program creation, and remain in effect.
In-progress In progress policies have been established in a state, but final regulations, rules, or plans are pending final approval. This also includes legislation and executive orders that require regulations to be put into effect.
Partially Enacted Partially enacted policies have been enacted in the state, but are missing one or more policy components. Dashboard policies cannot be considered partially enacted unless policy components are available.
Not Enacted Not enacted policies have not been passed or established in the state or are no longer in effect.

Glossary of Terms

The colored bars indicate the status for each policy on the Dashboard, viewed across seven policy areas.

Status	Policy	Policy Area	Policy Category	Year Enacted
Enacted	Residential Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes	2020
Empty column	The statewide energy code for residential construction is 2018 IECC.	Establishing Policies Delaware State Energy Code (2020)
Enacted	Commercial Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes	2020
Empty column	The statewide energy code for commercial building construction is 2018 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2016.	Establishing Policies Delaware State Energy Code (2020) HB 11 (2023)
Not Enacted	Stretch Building Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes
Empty column	Stretch building energy codes are an optional, more stringent building code established by the state that local jurisdictions can adopt to require that newly constructed buildings are more efficient than the baseline state codes.
Not Enacted	Appliance Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Appliance standards set minimum energy and water conservation requirements for appliances and equipment.
In-Progress	Building Performance Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Delaware will receive $10M to develop and adopt a building performance standard through the federal Inflation Reduction Act Support for Building Energy Codes and Innovative Codes.	Establishing Policies Inflation Reduction Act Support for Building Energy Codes and Innovative Codes – Round 2 (2024)
Not Enacted	Clean Heat Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Clean heat standards establish a performance standard requiring heat providers to deliver a gradually-increasing percentage of low-emission heating services to customers.
Enacted	Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS)	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency	2014
Empty column	Electric and gas utilities are subject to voluntary energy savings targets, which are determined by the Delaware Energy Efficiency Advisory Council.	Establishing Policies SB 150 (2014)
Enacted	Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency	2018
Empty column	Delaware has enacted commercial PACE-enabling legislation and has active programs.	Establishing Policies SB 113 (2018)
Partially Enacted	Weatherization Funding	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency
Empty column	The State Policy Opportunity Tracker (SPOT) breaks clean energy policies down into “components”, which are binary questions to evaluate policy quality. Higher quality policies have more of their SPOT components fulfilled.	Establishing Policies SPOT - Weatherization Funding in Delaware	Policy Components not-enacted not-enacted not-enacted enacted 1/4
Not Enacted	All-Electric Buildings	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Electrification
Empty column	All-electric buildings policies require new buildings to be constructed with all-electric heating, cooling, and cooking systems to transition away from fossil-fuel use in buildings.

Delaware

Key Offices & Links

24

38

Southeast

Progress by Policy Area

Climate Governance and Equity

Cross-Sector

Electricity

Buildings and Efficiency

Transportation

Industry, Materials, and Waste Management

Natural and Working Lands

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections in Delaware

Climate Policies in Delaware