Us, Humans, are Responsible for Climate Change
Fossil Fuels and Emissions
With fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas making up more than 75% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and almost 90% of carbon dioxide emissions overall, fossil fuels are by far the biggest contributor to climate change.
Human activities that use fossil fuels and cause emissions can be grouped into:
Plugging In
Getting Around
Throwing Away
Making Things
Growing Things
Much of the world’s CO2 comes from fossil fuels which are used to produce electricity. Burning coal, oil or gas produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (NO2), two very strong greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, 25% of the electricity in the world comes from renewable (clean) energy sources such as wind and solar, these produce almost no greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In Brunei, our energy mainly comes from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas. Only less than 1% are from renewable sources (solar PV).
Plugging In
Fossil fuels are the major source of power for cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes. Using vehicles and transportation, in general, gives out a lot of greenhouse gases as they burn fossil fuel products like gasoline. Greenhouse gases from aircraft and ships are also rising. Today, about a quarter (25%) of carbon dioxide emission in the world come from energy which is produced for transportation. In the next few years, energy for transportation is also predicted to rise significantly. In Brunei, 13.6% of greenhouse gases comes from land transportation.
Getting Around
Throwing Away
Consumption practices or how we use products also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Many homes in the world use and throw away products such as plastics, electronics, and clothes. Trash from these homes are responsible for a large portion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the richest people in the world’s population also produce more greenhouse gas emissions than the lowest 50% because they use a lot more products. This shows that wealthy people have a stronger responsibility to take care of the Earth.
Making Things
A lot of greenhouse gases also come from factories. Fossil fuels is often used to produce items such as electronics, plastics, textiles, iron, steel, and cement. This is also true for the construction sector, mining sector and other factories. Coal, oil or gas is often used as fuel for machines. Chemicals made from fossil fuels are also used to make products such as plastics. In the world, the industrial sector is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing and construction contribute contribute 4.1% to Brunei’s total emissions while industrial processes contribute 3.8%
Growing Things
Carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions can also be caused when making food. This can happen in a lot of ways such as deforestation, clearing land for agriculture and grazing, digestion by cattle and sheep, the making and use of fertilisers and manure for crop growth, and the use of fishing boats and farm equipment, all of which use fossil fuels. Because of all this, food production contributes a lot to climate change. The distribution and packaging of food also gives out greenhouse gas emissions.
Checking Out How The World’s Doing
Click the picture to check out Climate Trace!
Curious how other countries in the world are doing on climate change? Want to check out greenhouse gas emissions around the world. Check out Climate Trace Website!
Climate TRACE is a detailed database of human-caused emissions from all major sources—from power plants and oil refineries to rice cultivation, cement production, and shipping.
How About Brunei?
All change starts at home! So how is our home of Brunei doing? Check out the link to the picture on the right for more details on Brunei’s GHG inventory!
As you can see to the right, much of our emissions come from power generation and much of it also CO2. With an oil and gas extensive country like ours, it’s going to be a bit tougher to get those CO2s to come down a a bit.
Take note though that the GHG data is from 2018. So keep a check on future details on Brunei’s GHG!