Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Carbon Free Zone World

Carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide - CO2)

Main article: Carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide - CO2)

2022: A.P. Moller-Maersk announces plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, one of the world's largest oil consumers, is stepping up plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions after environmentally friendly alternatives were found to refuel ships. More details here.

2021

Trends in greenhouse gas emissions in Europe

In the third quarter of 2021, greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union economy amounted to 881 million tons. Eurostat published such data in February 2022. The most "dirty" country in Europe was Bulgaria.

Emissions of greenhouse gases by the European Union (EU) economy in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 6% compared to the same quarter of 2020. This increase is largely due to the effect of economic recovery after a sharp decrease in activity due to the pandemic of coronavirus infection (COVID-19). In the third quarter of 2021, the sectors of the economy responsible for the largest number of greenhouse gas emissions were manufacturing 23%, electricity 21%, as well as households 14% and agriculture 14%, according to a Eurostat study.

Emissions in the third quarter of 2021 decreased in Slovenia -2.6% compared to the same quarter of 2020, Luxembourg -2.3% and the Netherlands -1.6%. On the other hand, the largest increase in emissions was recorded in Bulgaria + 22.7%, Latvia + 16.2% and Greece + 13.1%. Despite the effect of the economic recovery between the third quarters of 2020 and 2021, the long-term trend of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU shows a steady decline in the direction of EU targets, experts explain.

In December 2021, EU policymakers submitted a second package of proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this decade and a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve the goal, the European Union needs to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 from 1990 levels. According to the calculations of the international research project on monitoring greenhouse gas emissions Global Carbon Project, in 2021 carbon dioxide emissions worldwide increased by 4.9% compared to 2020 and amounted to 36.7 billion tons^[1]

Energy crisis and return to coal led to record CO2 emissions

The energy crisis has led to record carbon emissions as Europe burns more coal.

The cost of carbon for the first time in history exceeded 70 euros, as utilities turn to the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

The price for the emission of a ton of carbon in the EU in 2021 by the end of November more than doubled.

Russia is one of the three countries in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. Leading the United States and China

In early October 2021, Carbon Brief published the results of an analysis of the total carbon dioxide emissions of countries since 1850. The study showed the states with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate emergency.

USA recognized as the largest pollutant on the planet, Earth followed by China. Russia Further, countries are located more exactly in total volumes:,,,,, and Brazil Indonesia. Germany India Great Britain Japan Canada Carbon dioxide has remained gas in the atmosphere for centuries, and total emissions are closely CO2 related to the + 2 ° C warming that has already occurred in the world.

The data also show that by October 2021, the world used 85% of the CO2 budget, which gives a 50% chance of limiting warming to + 1.5 ° C, the dangerous limit agreed in Paris in 2015. The United States, Germany, Britain and Canada, the only top 10 countries to commit to deeper emissions reductions ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). Although the US has said it will double its contribution to climate finance for developing countries, some believe that this is too little on the part of the world's largest economy.

Russia entered the top three countries in carbon emissions, among the leaders also the United States and China

Russia has made a new commitment, but it allows emissions to rise, and the Climate Action Monitoring Group (CAT) estimates it as critically insufficient compared to Paris targets. China and India have not yet made any new promises, and Brazil, Indonesia and Japan have not improved on previous promises.

The Carbon Brief analysis shows that about 85% of total US emissions China are related to fossil fuel combustion, and 15% to deforestation, while Brazil in Indonesia and Indonesia there is a reverse picture. Indonesia has made some progress in halting tree deforestation, but deforestation in Brazil has accelerated under current President Jair Bolsonaro.

The United States was the largest aggregate pollutant from 1850 to October 7, 2021, which remains. Russia was the second largest polluter until 2007, when its emissions surpassed China, whose emissions began to rise rapidly since 1970. Great Britain was the third largest polluter from 1870 until 1970, and after it was overtaken by Brazil.

The Carbon Brief analysis used data from the Carbon Dioxide Clearing House, Global Carbon Project, Carbon Monitor, and research on emissions from deforestation and land-use change. The analysis begins in 1850, to which there is little reliable data, so it does not include emissions from deforestation that occurred before 1850. The analysis takes into account changes in state borders over time, but does not attribute emissions from previously colonized countries to a colonizing country.^[2]

By 2050, 66 countries, including the world's leading economies, have committed to carbon neutrality

Achieving carbon neutrality, or the Net Zero scenario, today is almost the most powerful global trend, promising to radically restructure the global economy. For Russia, it can turn out to be, if not a disaster, then extremely serious Carbon-free challenges^[3].

Threat at a price of trillions

The main challenge that the Russian economy will almost inevitably face due to the energy transition remains the critical decline in resource exports. The latter promises to be most tangible if carbon neutrality is indeed achieved by 2050. Then energy exports may fall by $192 billion, estimated at Sberbank. At the same time, domestic fuel production may decrease by 72% in terms of oil and gas condensate, energy coal - by 90%, gas production may fall by 52%, said the head of Sberbank German Gref.

This will inevitably result in a reduction in Russian budget revenues. At the end of 2020, recall that the share of oil and gas budget revenues amounted to about 28%. As German Gref specified, by 2035 the country may not count about 5 trillion rubles. A delayed energy transition scenario by 2070 may be less painful. In this case, budget losses may amount to about 5.5 trillion by 2035.

Revenues will inevitably fall

According to the results of the pandemic 2020, real incomes of the population decreased by 3.5%, more than 19 million Russians are below the poverty line, according to Rosstat. The global energy transition falls promise to accelerate. According to Sberbank estimates, if carbon neutrality is achieved by 2050, they may drop to 14% in 15 years. If the latter is reached later, by 2070, a fall cannot be avoided: by 2035, incomes will be about 9% less, which is also significant.

The problem of employment is at risk, especially in the oil and coal territories of the country. So, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 15 thousand people may lose their jobs, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - 43 thousand, in the Kemerovo region - 65 thousand workers (and these are only estimates for industries directly related to energy production). At the same time, we are talking about regions that so far remain prosperous in terms of budget revenues.

A blow to investment

A global energy transition will certainly happen. However, the main question is: how and when will it happen? But with any of the options, the transition to new energy will not be fast, including for economic reasons, because it will require significant financial investments (according to Sberbank estimates, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 will cost $140 million). Also, there is no absolute technological readiness for it. So, different energy systems will coexist in any case, and a very long time.

2020

Telecom companies began to emit twice as much CO2 as aviation

At the end of June 2021, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) published a study according to which telecommunications operators emit twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as aviation. The former account for about 3-4% of emissions.

According to RBC, citing the BCG report, CO2 emissions from telecom operators are growing amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has led to increased demand for digital communications, "warmed up by a massive transition to remote work formats."

Telecom companies began to emit twice as much CO2 as aviation

In this regard, specialized companies "began to consume more energy than ever before." According to Vladislav Butenko, head of TMT practice (technology, media and telecommunications) at BCG outside the CIS, in 2020 the volume of traffic consumption in Russia grew by almost 40%, in the next years global data consumption will grow by 60% annually - only data centers by 2030 will consume up to 8% of world electricity.

The authors of the report noted that the operators themselves account for 1.6% of emissions, and up to 90% are formed by their partners throughout the chain - from the purchase of raw materials to recycling. Analysts called on telecom companies to "take responsibility for such emissions" and begin to require suppliers to be more transparent and environmentally friendly. However, so far, telecom operators do not have uniform standards and a common policy on this issue.

According to experts, telecommunications companies can reduce the negative effect in several ways. Among them - the transition to fifth-generation (5G) technologies, optimization of cooling and digital innovations in data centers, the transition to renewable energy sources.

Before the pandemic, the industry was not under as much scrutiny from society and the state in terms of its impact on the environment as aviation... In this new digital reality, which will not go anywhere, telecommunications companies will have to rethink their influence on the environment, "said Vladislav[4]

8% reduction forecast due to COVID-19 pandemic

According to the forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA) for September 2020, global CO2 emissions by the end of 2020 will decrease by 8% compared to last year - that is, they will fall to the level that was last recorded 10 years ago. This positive outlook, however, is explained not so much by the increase in electricity production from renewable sources as by the negative impact of the COVID-19 coronacrisis on world industrial production and the corresponding decrease in harmful production emissions.

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