tingilinde

consumption based carbon emission accounting

An important and often neglected way of looking at the problem. 

(I think it's outside the PNAS paywall)

 

Consumption-based accounting of CO₂ emissions

 

Steven J. Davis and Ken Caldeira

 

Abstract

CO₂ emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the primary cause of global warming. Much attention has been focused on the CO₂ directly emitted by each country, but relatively little attention has been paid to the amount of emissions associated with the consumption of goods and services in each country. Consumption-based accounting of CO₂ emissions differs from traditional, production-based inventories because of imports and exports of goods and services that, either directly or indirectly, involve CO₂ emissions. Here, using the latest available data, we present a global consumption-based CO₂ emissions inventory and calculations of associated consumption-based energy and carbon intensities. We find that, in 2004, 23% of global CO₂ emissions, or 6.2 gigatonnes CO₂, were traded internationally, primarily as exports from China and other emerging markets to consumers in developed countries. In some wealthy countries, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, and France, >30% of consumption-based emissions were imported, with net imports to many Europeans of >4 tons CO₂ per person in 2004. Net import of emissions to the United States in the same year was somewhat less: 10.8% of total consumption-based emissions and 2.4 tons CO₂ per person. In contrast, 22.5% of the emissions produced in China in 2004 were exported, on net, to consumers elsewhere. Consumption-based accounting of CO₂ emissions demonstrates the potential for international carbon leakage. Sharing responsibility for emissions among producers and consumers could facilitate international agreement on global climate policy that is now hindered by concerns over the regional and historical inequity of emissions.

 

 

what happens to the climate if we lose clouds

At high CO₂ concentrations much of the planet's normal cloud cover might disappear.  If so this would be an existential threat to humanity and numerous ecosystems.

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

the alarmed population grows

For the first time the alarmed segment of Yale's Six Americas is the largest segment.  Their segmentation is a bit arbitrary, but it's a useful tool for looking at how people think about global warming. Politicians of both parties - particularly those on the right - are trailing..

 

 

some of us will see our electric bills go up

As Trump policies favor coal in a Republican FERC ruling...  also it's bad for global warming and will increase deaths and illness from heavy metal pollution.

Republican winning!

 

 

australia burns

They're also the number one coal exporting country and burn quite a bit for their internal use.  The deniers are in power.

A BBC video piece.

 

 

plastics

the coming boom (via Yale360)

snip

...

Companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up output of plastic — which is made from oil and gas, and their byproducts — to hedge against the possibility that a serious global response to climate change might reduce demand for their fuels, analysts say. Petrochemicals, the category that includes plastic, now account for 14 percent of oil use, and are expected to drive half of oil demand growth between now and 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. The World Economic Forum predicts plastic production will double in the next 20 years.

“In the context of a world trying to shift off of fossil fuels as an energy source, this is where [oil and gas companies] see the growth,” said Steven Feit, a staff attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, an advocacy group.

And because the American fracking boom is unearthing, along with natural gas, large amounts of the plastic feedstock ethane, the United States is a big growth area for plastic production. With natural gas prices low, many fracking operations are losing money, so producers have been eager to find a use for the ethane they get as a byproduct of drilling.

...

 

 

holiday lights from space

funding climate denial

The bankruptcy of Murray Energy revealed some of the company's climate denial funding.

snip

...

He also funded an array of conservative political action committees as well as groups that deny the existence of climate change and have worked to revoke former President Barack Obama’s regulations aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions.

The company gave $300,000 to Government Accountability & Oversight, a group focused on countering organizations that oppose Trump administration environmental rollbacks. An additional $200,000 went to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank that maintains that scientists have not proven that human activity is the main cause of rising emissions. And $130,000 was given to the Heartland Institute, which has sponsored climate-change deniers to speak at United Nations climate change conferences.

...

 

 

 

worse than trumpism

Republican climate denial - comments from Paul Krugman

 

japan and hydrogen

Japan continues work towards a proposed hydrogen economy. It's important to realize that free hydrogen is rare and you need to extract it from water or fossil fuels.  Fifteen years ago the idea was more nuclear reactors to generate electricity to make hydrogen via electrolysis.  That's economically and politically impossible in Japan now so the focus has shifted to extracting hydrogen from low quality Australian coal - a process that is associated with large carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.  In theory the carbon could be captured and sequestered, but no one has a handle on doing at scale economically...