Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise
May 20th, 2008, 10:21 am · Post a Comment · posted by Ed Taylor
Some interesting data on carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions was released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It’s sure to increase the hand-wringing by those concerned about global warming.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increased by 1.6 percent last year, according to preliminary estimates by the agency, which is a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Most of the increase was due to burning of more fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to produce electricity for heating and cooling homes and businesses. CO2 emissions from industry and from transportation vehicles remained essentially flat for the year, the agency said.
In 2007, CO2 emissions from the electric power sector increased by 3 percent, while power generation increased by 2.5 percent. The increase in emission intensity was due largely to a decline in generation from non-polluting hydroelectric dams, which was not fully offset by increases in wind and nuclear-power generation and required the burning of more fossil fuels, the agency said.
The good news is the overall economy as measured by the Gross Domestic Product grew by 2.2 percent last year, indicating that carbon dioxide intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) fell by about 0.5 percent. Total U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have grown by 19.4 percent since 1990, but the overall U.S. economy has grown by a much greater percentage over that time. The end result is the carbon dioxide intensity of the economy has fallen by 26.6 percent, the agency said.
The data indicate how difficult it is to achieve reductions in CO2 emissions during a period when the economy is expanding. Our economy is much clearer now per unit of output than it was in 1990, but output has grown so much that overall greenhouse gas emissions are far higher.