Climate Change: USA Green House Gas Emissions

In reviewing U.S. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Report of 2011 issued by the EPA it reviewed GHG emissions and sinks from 1990-2009. I found no current data for 2011. The report quantifies U.S. primary anthropogenic sources (anthropogenic- refers to GHG emissions and removals that are a direct result of human activities or are the result of natural processes that have been affected by human activities. America’s stance on GHG emission varies greatly depending upon which political party you are asking. However, in 1992, the US ratified and signed Article 2 of the UNFCCC which stated:
“The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”
As of 2009, total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 6,633.2 teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalents; net emissions were 5,618.2 Tg CO2 Eq. I am pretty sure that means a whole lot.
U.S. emissions have increased by 7.3 percent from 1990 to 2009. Yet, decreased from 2008 to 2009 by 6.1 percent (427.9 Tg CO2 Eq.). The following factors were noted by the epa as the primary reasons for the decrease: (1) a decrease in economic output resulting in a decrease in energy consumption across all sectors; and (2) a decrease in the carbon intensity of fuels used to generate electricity due to fuel switching as the price of coal increased, and (3) the price of natural gas decreased significantly. Since 1990, U.S. emissions have increased at an average annual rate of 0.4 percent. The recent trends in GHG listed a myriad number of contributors.

The biggest contributor is CO2, of course, due to fossil fuel combustion measured in (Tg or million metric tons CO2 Eq) as of 2009 is as follows: CO2: 83%
Fossil Fuel Combustion 5,209.0
Electricity Generation 2,154.0
Transportation 1,719.7
Industrial 730.4
Residential 339.2
Commercial 224
For CH4: 10.3%
Natural Gas Systems 221.2
Enteric Fermentation 139.8
Landfills 117.5
Coal 71.0
Manure Management 49.5
Petroleum Systems 30.9
Wastewater Treatment 24.5
Forest Land Remaining Forest Land 7.8
For N2O: 4.5%
Agricultural Soil Management 204.6
Mobile Combustion 23.9
Manure Management 17.9
Nitric Acid Production 14.6
Stationary Combustion 12.8
As well as HFCs, PFCs, SF6 making up 2.2%

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For further reading:

http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/01/25/2

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2011/04/14/biggest-drop-in-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

Comments Off on Climate Change: USA Green House Gas Emissions / 26 Jan 2012 por Lauren Musiello
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