Global CO2 emissions are still rising

The climate emergency: key points

Ten-point action plan

Civil disobedience?

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Carbon footprint calculator

Carbon footprint calculator

Reasons for concern

Key points on the climate emergency The climate has changed: the physics Climate change is man-made The global CO2 budget runs out in 8 years The UK's share of the global CO2 budget runs out in 2 years UN Secretary-General: "Government leaders are lying" Young people are pleading for action: 10 key messages Greta Thunberg's "blah blah blah" speech, Milan 2021 Pleas from the world's poorest

Actions needed

UN Secretary-General: "A grassroots movement that cannot be ignored" Climate emergency ten-point action plan
International commitments given
Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries
The maths of staying within the UK's CO2 budget: Halve emissions every 3 years

Reviewing progress against the CO2 budget

Global emissions are still rising "Zero carbon sooner" CO2 budget report from CUSP

Identifying reasons for lack of progress

Nolan's Seven Principles of Public Life Why has progress been so poor? Decision making has not followed the science All sections of society are failing It is a system failure rather than a failure of individuals Cognitive biases, flawed reasoning, denial and fallacies dominate opinions and decision making Climate denial: literal, interpretive and implicatory Climate urgency denial Checklist for consistency with the IPCC Checklist for consistency with the IPCC: Results summary

Governments

UK Government fallacy: overclaiming the reduction in UK CO2 emissions

Media deficiencies

The BBC: Climate denial The Guardian: Climate denial The British Medical Journal: Climate denial

Campaigning deficiencies

Effective and ineffective campaigning Friends of the Earth: Not consistent with the IPCC Fridays for Future: Consistent with the IPCC Climate Uncensored: Consistent with the IPCC Campaign against Climate Change: Partially consistent with the IPCC Ethical Consumer Magazine: Not consistent with the IPCC Climate Emergency UK: Not consistent with the IPCC Sustrans: Not consistent with the IPCC

Specific actions

Specific actions needed: Summary

Improving decision making

Reliable decision making

Actions by sector

National governments Local government Individuals Reduce your carbon footprint: at least 10% per year

False solutions to be avoided

'Offsetting' Planting trees Tree planting claims by Zurich scientists were withdrawn Electric vehicles: not an immediate solution

Ensuring good decision making

Challenging fallacies

Common climate fallacies

UK Government

The 'Net Zero 2050' UK Government fallacies The UK Net Zero strategy would take three times the UK's share of the global CO2 budget

Ethical Consumer: Inconsistency with the IPCC in the Climate Gap reports

Critique of report methodology Correspondence with Ethical Consumer

Client Earth

Client Earth: Climate denial

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience in a democracy: Q and A

Technicalities

UK average footprint International comparisons

Emissions by sector

Home energy "Green electricity" Cars Food Health, education, etc emissions Bus travel Train travel Aviation
Calculator version information

Quotes

Links

About

About us

Posts in 2022:

Consistency with the IPCC

Climate urgency fallacies

Not consistent with the IPCC

Action needed

Passivhaus home standards

Challenge fallacies and malpractice

Challenge fallacies, incompetence and malpractice

Ensuring good decision making

Assessing performance on the climate emergency Climate Urgency Realism or Denial score Climate urgency denial in UK Government scientists

About

Why trust this website?

Posts in 2020-2021:

Action needed

'Hydrogen power' is not the answer

Ensuring good decision making

Civil disobedience and the law Extinction Rebellion

Technicalities by sector

Basic UK energy and greenhouse gas statistics References

Posts in 2019:

The climate crisis and what to do about it

Climate change: the basics Simple solutions for the climate crisis, which should have been implemented already

Action needed

Local government: Make walking safe Organisations

Awareness raising

Leaflets, video

Reasons for optimism

Decline in UK domestic aviation Decline of domestic aviation in Sweden

Standards of administration in a democracy

Effective planning

Performance assessments

BEIS is not telling the truth on carbon emissions Transport for the North: Failing on the climate crisis Steve Rotheram: failing on the climate crisis Wirral Council's emission reduction trajectory

Global CO2 emissions are still rising

Despite the numerous international agreements since 1992, global CO2 emissions have continued to increase.

In 2021, the total CO2 emissions from energy use was 33.9 billion tonnes, and the total from energy use and other industrial processes was 39.0 billion tonnes.

Governments are failing

The global total has continued to rise despite the the signing of international agreements, including

the Rio Declaration of 1992
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992
the Kyoto Protocol of 1997
the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Read more at document 113.

The fall in 2009 was due to the international banking crisis, and the fall in 2020 was due to covid-19.

Sources

The data is taken from several editions of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, most recently the 2022 edition [1].

References

[1]	BP Statistical Review of World Energy (2022) https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2022-full-report.pdf

First published: Mar 2019
Last updated: 8 May 2023