Fossil Fuel Emissions - 2011

By Paul Homewood

 

 

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) have just published the provisional CO2 emissions data for 2011, giving more detail than the figures released last week by the Global Carbon Project.

 

 

 

                                      THOUSAND TONNES CARBON

	2010	2011	% INCREASE
UK	134058	124886	-6.8
US	1500864	1473381	-1.8
REST NORTH AMERICA	266235	271286	1.9
EUROPE (EXCL UK)	1246070	1245760	0.0
RUSSIA	445326	458108	2.9
MIDDLE EAST	496096	514791	3.8
AFRICA	341068	343051	0.6
CHINA	2260287	2484812	9.9
INDIA	572692	615500	7.5
REST ASIA/PACIFIC	1102394	1124795	2.0
SOUTH AMERICA	340452	350774	3.0
OTHERS	485995	463709	-4.6
TOTAL	9191537	9470853	3.0

 

As expected, China and India have continued to massively increase their emissions, while UK and US figures are falling. Europe’s are effectively unchanged, though this does not tell the whole picture, as certain countries such as Germany and France have reduced emissions, whilst others, like Poland and some other Eastern European nations, have seen increases.

 

Figures 1 and 2 put the data into perspective.

 

Figure 1

Figure 2

China and India, together, now account for a third of global emissions, and both plan to continue to increase them substantially for many years to come, as Xie Zhenhua, China’s chief negotiator to the UN climate change talks, told us only last month. At the current rate of increase their fossil fuel emissions will have more than doubled by 2020, by which time they will account for over half of the global CO2.

Yet the boondoggle at Doha carries on as if this elephant in the room does not exist.

In the UK, the Dept of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued an Impact Assessment, as part of the Climate Change Act 2008. It contains the following statement:-

It is important to note that, where the UK takes action that is not reciprocated, the avoided damages will be distributed across the globe, while the UK will pay all the costs of action. While the action may show a net benefit at the global level, the UK continuing to act while the rest of the world does not, would result in a large net cost for the UK.

It surely ought to be clear to an idiot, or even the dolts who govern us, that the rest of the world is not going to follow our lead, and that any reductions in CO2 that we make will be swamped within weeks by other countries. The Act should be withdrawn immediately before it does irreversible damage to the UK economy.

 

Xmas Quiz

Could someone please tell me why Weepy Bill and the rest of the tree hugging, sandal wearing brigade don’t take their silly banners to Tiananmen Square, where they could protest to their heart’s content. (Or at least until they were frogmarched to the nearest cell.)

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