Has any industrialized country reduced its carbon output over the past decade?
Germany for instance has invested heavily in solar over the past several years. US wind capacity is growing fairly steadily.
So, has investment in renewables or conservation/efficiency measures caused any significant reduction in CO2 output for any industrialized country?
It's a little hard to disentangle from the drop due to the global recession, but I'm still curious if there has been measurable progress made anywhere.
OT rants will be mercilessly ranked down. :)
Matt2011-01-02T22:25:09Z
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The best stats I could get my hands on. Double check the chart, I may have missed a few.
According to my reference, the following 41 countries reduced their carbon emissions from 1997 to 2007:
Afghanistan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Burundi, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, French Guiana, Gabon, Germany, Greenland, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hungary, Japan, Korea (North), Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Saint Helena, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe.
Of those 41 countries, the following 14 are considered industrialized by UNICEF, due to low child mortality rates:
The global recession did it for most. The recession reduced more carbon output in one year, than what renewable energy usage could achieve over a much longer period of time. And how much was the rate of global photosynthesis reduced in the mean time ?
Global photosynthesis Die away faster than what any clever human boiled statistics can imagine. Available AREA is one of the most pertinent variables that determine the rate of global photosynthesis. We need four very clear and strong negative growth rates in :
Natural Gas usage ; (where is this renewable energy statistics?)
Crude Oil - Liquid Petroleum Fuel burning ; (where is this renewable energy statistics ?)
Coal burning ;
Peat burning. (Large areas burning 24/7 out of control)
The peat is part of the biomass suppose to be banked for future fossil fuel. Also the fossil fuel natural production cycle was affected badly by reduced phosynthesis and by such peat fires and also by hundreds of added coal deposits on fire.
And we do not have that much time before we exceed the point of no return.
You have to be careful how you view those statistics, Eric. Denmark, for example, has made all of it's CO2 reduction goals, but they did it by shutting down all their heavy industry. They essentially offshored all the emissions associated with the production of the durable goods and chemicals they use.
Similarly, California has reduced it's emissions, but the reasons are primarily due to the severe economic downturn in the state and the fact that they buy a lot of their electricity from Arizona. So Arizona gets charged for the emissions from the natural gas fired power plant, but California actually uses the power.
If you want to know how much real progress we have made globally, look at increased use of renewable energy and gains in energy efficiency. These are real gains, the rest is a shell game.
great thought! purely look how effectual that's been to fling a lot of money at a paperwork right this moment and interior the previous. somebody reported something approximately how we could consistently make specific the money is being spent because it grow to be meant. whilst the f*ck has that EVER got here approximately with a paperwork or governmental business enterprise earlier? Corrupt human beings gets their claws on that money purely as they consistently have. To think of in any different case is naive at suited. We purely won't be able to hold returned the tide of climate replace, no be counted if the temperature is going up or down. human beings uniting as an entire? It ain't gonna happen, that's totally opposite to what makes us what we are. look, i've got self assurance that AGW is possibly genuine. I have no hopes of humanity uniting for a hassle-loose reason. Siberia (best woodland on the earth) would be logged till that's a wilderness - that's a pipe dream to think of that folk living from hand to mouth will sacrifice their destitute life for a good greater bleak one. China, however pledging to minimize that's projected Co2 output, will proceed to pump ever greater Co2 into the ambience each and each year than it did the twelve months earlier, as will India... and so on. human beings will proceed to reproduce and exponentially improve the Co2/human effect on the earth. that's what that's. greater suited confirm a thank you to evolve to the inevitable because of the fact we won't be able to hold returned the tides of fact. As they say, "choose in one hand, crap in the different and notice which one fills up."
From what I understand, the cleanest two nations are France and Switzerland where there is plenty of hydro power or in France's case they have used nuclear power for over 30 years. As for the past decade, no, no Nation has really reduced its carbon output over the past decade that I know of. A lot of Europe and North America we have seen minimal increase over the past decade but not a true decrease if you ignore the drop due to global recession.