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CLIMATE CHANGE: International Report Shows Increase in CO2 Emissions

Causing climate changeTrends in Global CO2 Emissions, 2012 Report, a recent report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, found that, in 2011, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the main cause of global warming—increased by 3%, reaching an all-time high of 34 billion tonnes. Here’s a look at the report’s key findings—particularly those that relate to Canada—and the implications for your company.

Key Findings

The report’s assessment focuses on the changes in annual CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2011, including emissions from fossil fuel combustion, flaring of waste gas during oil production, cement clinker production and other limestone uses, feedstock and other non-energy uses of fuels, and several other small sources. But it excludes CO2 emissions from deforestation and logging, forest and peat fires, post-burn decay of remaining above-ground biomass and decomposition of organic carbon in drained peat soils. Although these sources could add as much as 20% to the global emissions total, they’re very uncertain and vary widely from year to year, explains the report.

The report’s primary finding was that, after a 1% decline in 2009 and 5% increase in 2010, global CO2 emissions increased by 3% in 2011. Over the past decade, average annual emissions increased by 2.7%. So the 2011 increase appears to be resuming this trend.

In Canada, CO2 emissions increased in 2011 by 2%. The five largest emitters were, based on their percentage of 2011 emissions:

  • China (29%);
  • The US (16%);
  • The European Union (11%);
  • India (6%); and
  • The Russian Federation (5%), closely followed by Japan (4%).

What’s interesting about the overall global increase in emissions is the fact that, in many countries, CO2 emissions actually decreased—in the European Union by 3%, in the US by 2% and in Japan by 2%—mainly due to weak economic conditions, mild winter weather and high oil prices.

The report does include some good news, though. The share of renewable energy sources excluding hydropower, such as solar and wind energy and biofuels, although still very small, is increasing quite fast. It took 12 years to double from a share of 0.5% to 1%, but only six more years to double again to 2.1% by 2011, representing 0.8 billion tonnes in potentially avoided CO2 emissions that would have been globally generated by fossil fuel power generation and road transport. If you include hydropower, total renewable energy sources presently supply 8.5% of all the energy that’s used globally. And use of biofuels is an area in which Canada is a leader (see the chart on p. X).

What the Findings Mean to You

2011 arguably wasn’t a good year for climate change in Canada. Its CO2 emissions increased and it officially dropped out of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce GHG emissions by 6% below 1990 levels, in Dec. 2011. (The withdrawal was recently upheld by a federal court.) But the federal government is painting a rosier picture of the current state and future of climate change in the country and its overall regulation of GHG emissions. So if your company is in any of sectors targeted for environmental regulation, you can likely expect increased regulation of CO2 and other GHG emissions for the foreseeable future at not only the federal but also the provincial and territorial levels.

INSIDER SOURCE

Trends in Global CO2 Emissions, 2012 Report, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency


Biofuel consumption in road transport (bioethanol and biodiesel), 2005–2011 (in TJ)

Country

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

US

364,700

509,800

660,700

829,600

943,100

1,128,500

1,197,500

Canada

10,200

11,500

25,600

25,100

36,800

48,900

41,300

Australia

0

0

900

2,700

5,500

7,600

10,000

Norway

200

200

1,400

3,700

4,300

5,200

5,200

Japan

400

400

500

500

1,100

1,800

1,800

Belarus

0

0

0

400

1,000

1,400

1,400

Turkey

0

100

500

3,200

100

200

900

New Zealand

0

0

50

90

500

600

200

Switzerland

300

400

600

600

400

300

500

Monaco

0

10

10

30

30

20

20

Iceland

0

0

0

10

10

10

10

EU

129,040

230,460

314,530

402,850

497,400

573,420

555,120