CO2 Emission Effects and Reduction: A Global Environmental Study

This essay delves into the critical issue of CO2 emissions, examining their adverse effects on the environment and outlining potential mitigation strategies. It highlights the role of greenhouse gases, the impact of human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation, and the consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels and agricultural challenges. The essay provides a global perspective, analyzing CO2 emission trends in regions such as the European Union, China, the United States, and India. It discusses the factors contributing to emission changes, such as coal consumption, renewable energy adoption, and industrial practices. The study references several reports and studies to support its claims, offering a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potential solutions related to CO2 emission reduction.

CO2 emission reduction 1
Sustainability and environmental studies

CO2 emission reduction 2
Topic – CO2 emission effects and reductions
Carbon dioxide formulates the entire share of greenhouse gases. The accumulation of
manmade greenhouse gases to the atmosphere influences the radiative balance of earth
adversely. This enhances the temperature of earth’s surface and to linked effects on agriculture,
climate and see level rise. While cooking food or burning plastics or wasteful things, it generates
CO2. There are two kind of sources such as natural and human of carbon dioxide emission. The
component of natural sources includes ocean releases, respiration and decomposition. The
activities of human sources which can be the reason of carbon dioxide emission are cement
production, deforestation along with burning of fossils fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas
(Cui, Fan, Zhu and Bi, 2014).
Carbon dioxide is colorless and non-poisonous gas which is generated by burning of wood
and other material of organic and fossil fuels like petroleum, coal and natural gas. Emission refers to the
discharge of greenhouse gases and their forerunner in to the atmosphere over a certain area and
period of time. It is the essay which will reflect the issue of CO2 emission and its possible
minimization with taking support of relevant data. Carbon footprint is poisonous for the world
and the reason behaving being bad for the world is that carbon emission contributes in the
change of climate which can have the severe result for human and their environment. Fossil fuel
is the main reason of increasing the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (Friedlingstein,
et. al., 2014). Carbon emission enhances the temperature of global by trapping the solar energy
in the atmosphere. CO2 emission can be measured and it emitted from the fatigue pipe of cars
and measured in grams per kilometer. New cars are tested in the laboratory on a “rolling road”
but the production is dependent on the “combined cycle” in which a diversity of driving
conditions is simulated.

CO2 emission reduction 3
The union of European facing stagnation in the reduction of emission after competing
more than 4 years of reducing emission that is by an average 3% per year from 2011 to 2014.
The sum of emission of EU has reached3.5 gigatons (Gt) CO2 in 2015. Emission increased in the
part of southern European countries that is Italy and Spain. The rate of increased emission in
Italy and Spain was 5% and 7% respectively. It is done due to more consumption of coal that is
24% in Spain. Along with that the main contribution in emission of Italy is in the consumption of
oil and natural gases. It has been analyzed that there are so many countries that contributes their
efforts in the reduction of emission that is Finland, United Kingdom and Denmark. They
decreased emission 4% to 10% in 2015. The support of renewable energy resources is increased
in the European Union by 15% in which hydropower was not included. Hydropower is known as
hydroelectric power plant which is taken in use to store water in a tank. With the support of
turbine and spinning water is being released which turn activities into generate electricity. It has
been studied in the report of Olivier, Janssens-Maenhout, Muntean, Jeroen , (2016), that the
amount of hydropower in the European Union denied by 8% which has huge influence over the
country of Spain, Italy Portugal and France. The weather of there is less favorable and due to this
the range of sum of renewable electricity enhanced by 7% to 30% of the sum of electricity
production.
There are different trends in the largest emitting countries and regions such as China,
United States, India and European Union. The CO2 emission of China is decreased in 2015 by
about 0.6%. It was done for the reason of declining in coal consumption. Coal is considered as
the dominant fossil fuel in the sectors of non-transport such as industry, power generations and
residential services (Hasanbeigi, Morrow, Sathaye, Masanet and Xu, 2013).

CO2 emission reduction 4
Figure 1: Global CO2 emission per region
Source: (Olivier, Janssens-Maenhout, Muntean, Jeroen , 2016).
The range of CO2 is decreased in the United States by 2.5% to 5% billion tones. It has
been analyzed that reduction in emission was in the sector of electric power because of shifting
of coal to natural gas utilized in the production of electricity. On the other hand the demand of
the electricity remained stable since 2005. The reduction in electricity was similar distinguished
over the commercial, industrial and residential sector (Hola et. al., 2014). Another country is
India, India sustained to enhance its CO2 emissions to 2.47 billion tones in 2015, which was
observed higher in comparison of 2014. If the contribution of India is remained same with this
average growth rate, it will exceed the sum of emission in the European Union by 2020. The
increment of CO2 emission is mainly done by the cause of oil and coal consumption. The coal
consumption should be concerned appropriately because it has been evaluated that in 2014, India
has exceeded the limit of coal consumption and become the second largest country after China
(Kanemoto, Moran, Lenzen and Geschke, 2014).

CO2 emission reduction 5
It has been concluded that due to carbon footprint many countries get influences
adversely. The essay has been made on CO2 emission reduction. Many countries have been
discussed in the context of emission of CO2. The issue has been focused in this research which is
liable to enhance the emission. Brief description about CO2 emission in the European Union,
United States, India, Spain, Italy and China has been discussed. There are so many reasons
which are liable behind increasing emission within the country. These are oil and gas, cement
production, iron and steel production and industrial sources. There are so many companies that
raise voice and fight against emission. There is certain law has been made to reduce the CO2
emission.

CO2 emission reduction 6
References
Cui, L.B., Fan, Y., Zhu, L. and Bi, Q.H., 2014, How will the emissions trading scheme save cost
for achieving China’s 2020 carbon intensity reduction target?. Applied Energy, 136, pp.1043-
1052.
Friedlingstein, P., Andrew, R.M., Rogelj, J., Peters, G.P., Canadell, J.G., Knutti, R., Luderer, G.,
Raupach, M.R., Schaeffer, M., Van Vuuren, D.P. and Le Quéré, C., 2014, Persistent growth of
CO2 emissions and implications for reaching climate targets. Nature geoscience, 7(10), p.709.
Hasanbeigi, A., Morrow, W., Sathaye, J., Masanet, E. and Xu, T., 2013, A bottom-up model to
estimate the energy efficiency improvement and CO 2 emission reduction potentials in the
Chinese iron and steel industry. Energy, 50, pp.315-325.
Hola, K., Bourlinos, A.B., Kozak, O., Berka, K., Siskova, K.M., Havrdova, M., Tucek, J.,
Safarova, K., Otyepka, M., Giannelis, E.P. and Zboril, R., 2014, Photoluminescence effects of
graphitic core size and surface functional groups in carbon dots: COO− induced red-shift
emission. Carbon, 70, pp.279-286.
Kanemoto, K., Moran, D., Lenzen, M. and Geschke, A., 2014, International trade undermines
national emission reduction targets: New evidence from air pollution. Global Environmental
Change, 24, pp.52-59.
Liu, C., Lu, M., Cui, J., Li, B. and Fang, C., 2014, Effects of straw carbon input on carbon
dynamics in agricultural soils: a meta‐analysis. Global change biology, 20(5), pp.1366-1381.

CO2 emission reduction 7
Olivier, sJ., G .,H., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Muntean, M., Jeroen A.,H.,W., 2016, Trends in
Global CO2 emissions: 2016 report, Retrieved on 30th September 2016, from:
http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/news_docs/jrc-2016-trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2016-report-
103425.pdf.

CO2 emission reduction 8