Carbon dioxide emissions

“ Human activity since the Industrial Revolution, particularly the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the huge consumption of fossil fuels by developed countries, have led to a significant increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases exacerbating climate change characterized by global warming. ”

“ The most urgent are those required to increase and extend the recent steady gains in energy efficiency and to shift the energy mix more towards renewables. Carbon dioxide output globally could be significantly reduced by energy efficiency measures without any reduction of the tempo of GDP growth. [31] These measures would also serve to abate other emissions and thus reduce acidification and urban-industrial air pollution. Gaseous fuels produce less carbon dioxide per unit of energy output than oil or coal and should be promoted. ”

“ There are roughly 1,500 billion to 1,700 billion mtc in proven coal, oil, and natural gas reserves that can be extracted using current technology, along with an estimated 7,000 billion to 16,000 billion mtc in resources that might ultimately be recovered using advanced technology—not including reservoirs of methane hydrate under the ocean. [9] Without some sort of intervention, increasing levels of emissions—mainly of carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuels—will continue to raise atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases for the foreseeable future. ”

“ Carbon dioxide and other ordinary pollutants often come from the same sources, mainly from the burning and utilization of fossil fuels. Controlling the use of fossil fuels and consequently reducing carbon emissions have a lasting impact on the economic structure, energy mix, forms of transport, modes of production, and ways of life. ”

“ People are likely to be wealthier in the future and therefore may find it easier to pay to reduce emissions. If income and wealth grow and technology improves as expected, future generations may find it relatively easy to cope with the impacts of climate change and to gradually impose increasingly strict restraints on emissions to avert further change. At least for carbon dioxide, emissions that occur sooner rather than later will have more time to be absorbed from the atmosphere by the oceans. ”

“ And reducing domestic automobile emissions is hardly a tentative step. Even leaving aside the other greenhouse gases, the United States transportation sector emits an enormous quantity of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere--according to the MacCracken affidavit, more than 1.7 billion metric tons in 1999 alone. ”

“ These alternative fuels-such as ethanol, methanol, natural gas, propane, electricity, and biodiesel-can make significant contributions to our energy security and environmental quality. By increasing the use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) , we can reduce our demand for imported oil, create new products, jobs, and businesses, and improve air quality by dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions as well as the hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter that are such major contributors to urban air pollution. ”

“ Because of their greater reliance on subsistence farming and forestry, developing countries currently account for most of the world’s carbon dioxide and methane emissions from land use. Even so, on a per capita basis, people in developing countries are responsible for far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than are their counterparts in the industrialized countries, and their total emissions levels are lower as well. ”

“ The emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) harms others in a way that is not reflected in the price of carbon-based energy, that is, CO2 emissions create a negative externality. Because the price of carbon-based energy does not reflect the full costs, or economic damages, of CO2 emissions, market forces result in a level of CO2 emissions that is too high. Because of this market failure, public policies are needed to reduce CO2 emissions and thereby to limit the damage to economies and the natural world from further climate change. ”

“ REQUIREMENT- The Administrator shall not identify any vehicle as a low greenhouse gas emitting vehicle if the vehicle emits greenhouse gases at a higher rate than such standards allow for the manufacturer's fleet average grams per mile of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions for that class of vehicle, taking into account any emissions allowances and adjustment factors such standards provide.'. ”

“ The plan recognizes that conserving and restoring global forest and peatland ecosystems, particularly in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, can provide significant global greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, both by preventing the emissions caused by deforestation and by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere and stored in soils and forest biomass. ”

“ The global warming potentials used to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases listed in Annex A shall be those accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties at its third session. ”

“ Ancillary Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Restrictions By reducing the use of fossil fuels, restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions would also reduce emissions of other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide from coal burning and nitrous oxide from automobiles. ”

“ And given where California is today and where our nation may be facing in terms of high energy bills and a looming energy crisis, the President does not think it would be wise to proceed. Thank you very much. Q One follow-up. Does the President personally believe that carbon dioxide emissions lead to global warming? MR. FLEISCHER: Evidence does suggest that CO2 does play a role in global warming. But the's separate from it being a pollutant. ”

“ Several characteristics of greenhouse gases make it possible to lower the costs of regulation by allowing for a great deal of flexibility in controlling emissions. Different greenhouse gases, measured in metric tons of carbon equivalent, have essentially the same effect on climate; they mix uniformly throughout the atmosphere and will only gradually affect the climate as they accumulate over time. Consequently, which gas is controlled and where—and, to some extent, whether a given reduction in emissions occurs this year or next—are immaterial. ”

“ We will enhance the carbon absorption capacity of our ecosystems. We will transition from assessing the total amount and intensity of energy consumption to assessing the total amount and intensity of carbon emissions, improve policy incentives for reducing pollution and carbon emissions and policy constraints on such emissions, develop green finance, and promote faster development of green and low-carbon ways of working and living. ”

“ A comprehensive energy plan will require bold action on many fronts. To fully combat global climate change, we'll need a stringent cap on all carbon emissions and the creation of a global market that would make the development of low-carbon technologies profitable and create thousands of new jobs. We'll also need to find a way to use coal - America's most abundant fossil fuel - without adding harmful greenhouse gases to the environment. ”

“ For the typical U.S. household, a metric ton of carbon equals about 10,000 miles of driving at 25 miles per gallon of gasoline or about one year of home heating using a natural gas-fired furnace or about four months of electricity from coal-fired generation.↑ The United States accounts for nearly as many emissions as the former Soviet bloc, the Middle East, Central and South America, and Africa combined. Use of fossil fuel in the United States is split roughly into three categories: commercial and residential buildings and appliances, industry, and transportation. ”

“ Any strategy for reducing carbon emissions must also deal with coal, which is actually the most abundant source of energy in this country. To keep using this fossil fuel, I believe we need to invest in the kind of advanced coal technology that will keep our air cleaner while still keeping our coal mines in business. Over the next two decades, power companies are expected to build dozens of new coal-fired power plants, and countries like India and China will build hundreds. ”

“ A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon [p505] dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientists believe the two trends are related. For when carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, it acts like the ceiling of a greenhouse, trapping solar energy and retarding the escape of reflected heat. It is therefore a species--the most important species--of a "greenhouse gas." ”

“ The burning of fossil fuels and, to a lesser extent, the loss of vegetative cover, particularly forests, through urban-industrial growth increase the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. The pre-industrial concentration was about 280 parts of carbon dioxide per million parts of air by volume. This concentration reached 340 in 1980 and is expected to double to 560 between the middle and the end of the next century. [24] Other gases also play an important role in this 'greenhouse effect', whereby solar radiation is trapped near the ground, warming the globe and changing the climate. ”

“ So we got to work, and over the past seven-and-a-half years, we’ve made ambitious investments in clean energy, and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions. We’ve multiplied wind power threefold. We’ve multiplied solar power more than thirtyfold. In parts of America, these clean power sources are finally cheaper than dirtier, conventional power. And carbon pollution from our energy sector is at its lowest level in 25 years, even as we’re continuing to grow our economy. ”

“ To develop the intuition, first suppose that the tipping point is a known temperature increase, say 3° Celsius above preindustrial levels, and that the economic consequences of crossing the tipping point are severe, and temporarily put aside other reasons for reducing carbon emissions. ”

“ Over the past six years, we’ve led by example, generating more clean energy and lowering our carbon emissions. Our businesses have stepped up in a big way, including just this past week. Some of our biggest companies made new commitments to act on climate – not just because it’s good for the planet, but because it’s good for their bottom line.
This is how America is leading on the environment. And because America is leading by example, 150 countries, representing over 85% of global emissions, have now laid out plans to reduce their levels of the harmful carbon pollution that warms our planet. ”

“ We’ve invested in energy efficiency, and we’re slashing carbon emissions from appliances, homes, and businesses – saving families money on their energy bills. We’re reforming how we manage federal coal resources, which supply roughly 40% of America’s coal. We’ve set the first-ever national standards limiting the amount of carbon pollution power plants can release into the sky. ”

“ Policy Options Governments may respond to climate change by adopting a "wait-and-see" approach, by pursuing research programs to improve scientific knowledge and develop technological options, by regulating greenhouse gas emissions, or by engaging in a combination of research and regulation. The United States has invested in research and subsidized the development of carbon-removal and alternative energy technologies. ”

“ The accumulation of those gases is changing the composition of the atmosphere and is probably contributing to a gradual warming of the Earth’s climate—the characteristic weather conditions that prevail in various regions of the world. Scientists generally agree that continued population growth and economic development over the next century will result in substantially more greenhouse gas emissions and further warming unless measures are taken to constrain those emissions. ”

“ Developed, industrialized countries—the members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and of the former Soviet bloc—are responsible for nearly 80 percent of historical carbon emissions, even though they have only about 20 percent of the world’s population. Historically speaking, people in developed countries have emitted roughly 10 times more carbon per person than people in developing countries. Indeed, it is the technological access to energy from fossil fuels that has helped make them roughly 10 times wealthier. ”

“ Second, taking steps now to reduce CO2 emissions signals the value of developing new low- and zero-emissions technologies, so additional steps towards a zero-carbon future can be taken as policy action incentivizes the development of new technologies. For both reasons, the least-cost mitigation path to achieve a given concentration target typically starts with a relatively low price of carbon to send these signals to the market, and subsequently increases as new low-carbon technology becomes available. ”

“ Number one, is extraordinary demand in America. And we use 22 million barrels of oil a day. Twelve million of those barrels are imported. It's the reason we have to make a bold transformation from what we are doing now.
Also, on the issue of climate change, we ought to cap carbon emissions in the United States. We ought to invest in clean alternative sources of energy. We ought to invest in carbon sequestration technology, in cold technology. A billion dollars, at least, into making sure we build the most fuel efficient vehicles on the planet. ”