Global CO2 emissions are still rising

The climate emergency: key points

Ten-point action plan

Civil disobedience?

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Calculators

Carbon footprint calculator Carbon budget calculator for each country

Recent Posts/Updates

Summary documents

The climate situation 2025 Reasons to be very concerned Key background information Action needed

Key information

What should have been done by governments and wider society in response to climate change? Counting consumption rather than territorial CO2 emissions Climate inaction and delay: Conspiracy or cockup? All sections of society are failing Government failures Climate science briefing for MPs by Patrick Vallence et al was seriously misleading House of Commons Library reports on climate change are seriously misleading MPs Campaigning failures Zero Hour: Climate urgency denial UKHACC: Climate urgency denial: Correspondence

Action needed

UK carbon budget calculations 2025 Carbon budget calculations for the average country

Technicalities

Emissions by sector

Home energy Cars Food Bus travel Train travel Aviation
About Copyright information

Posts in 2023-2024:

Reasons to be very concerned

Key points on the climate emergency

Human activity has changed the climate

The climate has changed: The physics Mankind has changed the climate

Mortality from climate change

Mortality and other costs of climate change

Time is running out

UK carbon budget calculations 2024 The UK's share of the global carbon budget runs out in 2 years The global carbon budget runs out in 7 years

System failures

UN Secretary-General: "Government leaders are lying" The UK Net Zero 2050 strategy would take three times the UK's share of the global carbon budget

Pleas from those most affected

Young people are pleading for action: 10 key messages Greta Thunberg's "blah blah blah" speech, Milan 2021 Pleas from the world's poorest

Action needed

UN Secretary-General: "A grassroots movement that cannot be ignored"

Actions needed

Climate emergency ten-point action plan

1. Overall aim and priority

International commitments given Why 1.5°C? Why climate action is an overriding priority

2. Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2

Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2

3. Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries

Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries
The maths of staying within the UK's carbon budget: Halve emissions every 3 years Double digit percentage annual emission cuts "Zero carbon sooner" CO2 budget report from CUSP

4. Reviewing progress against the CO2 budget

Global emissions are still rising

5. Identifying reasons for lack of progress on climate change

Why progress has been so poor: Summary The UK's Seven Principles of Public Life Decision making has not followed the science It is a system failure rather than a failure of individuals Cognitive biases, flawed reasoning, fallacies and denial dominate opinions and decision making Climate denial: literal, interpretive and implicatory Climate urgency denial Checklist for auditing consistency with the IPCC Auditing consistency with the IPCC: Summary for selected groups

5a. Governments

UK Climate Change Committee: Not consistent with the IPCC UK Government fallacy: overclaiming the reduction in UK CO2 emissions

5b. Media deficiencies

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

5c. Campaigning deficiencies

Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 1: Court case 2022 Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 2: Response to CCC annual report 2023 Fridays for Future: Consistent with the IPCC Climate Uncensored: Consistent with the IPCC Campaign against Climate Change: Consistent with the IPCC Ethical Consumer Magazine: Climate denial Climate Emergency UK: Climate denial Client Earth: Climate denial Sustrans: Climate denial

6. Improving decision making

Reliable (safe system) decision making and policy making

7. Actions by sector

Specific actions needed: Summary National governments Local government

False solutions to be avoided

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

8. Individuals

Individuals Reduce your carbon footprint: at least 10% per year

9. Ensuring good decision making

Challenging fallacies

Common climate fallacies

UK Government

The 'Net Zero 2050' UK Government fallacies

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

Critique of report methodology Correspondence with Ethical Consumer

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience in a democracy: Q and A

Technicalities

UK average GHG emissions International comparisons

Emissions by sector

"Green electricity" Health, education, etc emissions
Calculator version information

Quotes

Links

Links

Posts in 2022:

Consistency with the IPCC

Climate urgency fallacies

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

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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 2022, the total CO2 emissions from energy use was 34.4 billion tonnes, and the total from energy use and other industrial processes was 39.3 billion tonnes CO2.

Governments have failed

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 Statistical Review of World Energy (formerly the BP Statistical Review of World Energy), most recently the 2023 edition [1].

References

[1]	Statistical Review of World Energy (2023) Energy Institute https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review

First published: Mar 2019
Last updated: 1 Oct 2023