Causes of CO2 in Beijing
One of the biggest goals in the Paris Agreement is to have net zero carbon levels by 2050. Everyone knows that CO2 is bad for our environment but do people understand what CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions do to our planet and which things effect it? China is one of the top CO2 emitters on the earth and we will be diving into a study done on Beijing to understand more about the effects and causes of carbon emissions.
A fair share of CO2 headlines have been in the news regarding China. For instance there was major concern in Beijing before the Olympic games. China has been so focused on growth of their country that they didn’t take into consideration the negative effects of their growth. “China, the largest developing country in the world, has already become the top primary energy consumer as well as the top CO2 emitter in the world”(Jing, Kai, Yang, Li, Hu, Zhang, 2017). From this they reap the effects of fog and haze in urban areas as well as heat transfer conductance.
From 2000–2010 studies were ran in Beijing to see which sectors were causing the most carbon emissions.“In the industrial sectors, the petroleum and natural gas exploitation (3-EPG), metal ores mining industry (4-MDM), manufacturing and processing of foods and tobacco (6-MFT), smelting-pressing of metal and metal products manufacture (14-SPS), manufacture of general and special equipment (16-GSE), manufacture of transportation equipment (17-TRP), manufacture of communication and other electronic equipment (19-COM), construction industry (23-CON) and transportation, storage, postal tele-communication services (24-TSP) contribute greatly to total CO2 emissions”(Jing, Kai, Yang, Li, Hu, Zhang, 2017). These industries are what is emitting the most carbon and greenhouse gas into the environment. As you will notice, most of these sectors like natural gas exploitation and manufacturing and processing of food and tobacco, can be substituted. If properly substituted, expansion can still occur without the loss of jobs and poor health conditions.
On a more positive note, the same studies done in Beijing found that certain sectors don’t emit as much carbon as thought before. “In contrast, sectors such as the coal mining industry (2-MIN), non-metal ores mining industry (5-MNM), timber processing and furniture manufacture (9-PTF) and instruments manufacture and machinery for cultural activity and office works (20-ICO) represent a very small proportion of CO2emissions” (Jing, Kai, Yang, Li, Hu, Zhang, 2017). This shows that not all industries that stimulate economic growth have a negative effect on the environment. The best strategy for results and maintaining economic growth would be to focus on the biggest contributors to carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and then solve those issues with greener substitutions.
Jing, W. Kai, H. Yang,S. Li, Y. Hu, T. Zhang, Y. (2017). Driving forces analysis of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Beijing: an input-output structural decomposition analysis. Elsevier Ltd, 116, 58–68.
