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August 23, 2023
Energy Efficiency & Saving Tips
Renewable Energy
Reviewed By Alfred Poindexter

Climate change due to rising global temperature seriously threatens the natural ecosystem. It can result in erratic weather featuring intense drought, heat waves, melting ice caps, warming oceans, and increased storms when left unchecked. As the impact of climate change worsens, the risk of biodiversity loss and human extinction gets bigger.

Table of Contents

What are greenhouse gases?

The primary sources of carbon dioxide emissions

Help decarbonize the world with clean renewable energy

Calculate your home's carbon footprint in seconds!

Climate change due to rising global temperature seriously threatens the natural ecosystem. It can result in erratic weather featuring intense drought, heat waves, melting ice caps, warming oceans, and increased storms when left unchecked. As the impact of climate change worsens, the risk of biodiversity loss and human extinction gets bigger.

Greenhouse gasses are a leading cause of global warming. Identifying each source of carbon emissions is crucial to promoting their long-term reduction. Here’s Power Wizard’s take on the different types of greenhouse gas emissions by source and methods of decarbonizing the world.

Industrial processes

Industrial processes are one of the largest sources of U.S. carbon emissions. The manufacturing, mining, and construction industries are some of the biggest players in the American economy. The manufacturing sector comprises:

  • Food processing
  • Paper manufacture
  • Chemical production
  • Metal fabrication
  • Mineral production

These industrial processes heavily rely on fossil fuels, an infamous source of carbon emissions. Combustion of fossil fuels generates heat and steam that play a crucial role in various production stages. For instance, cement factories heat up limestone using fossil fuels to create cement. Metalworking industries need to melt iron under intense heat to produce steel.

The melting process helps refine the metal by removing carbon impurities that later get released as carbon dioxide into the environment. Plastic, lubricants, and solvents also rely on petroleum as a raw material. These petroleum products gradually dissolve, evaporate, or wear out over time while emitting carbon dioxide. Industries can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by:

  • Improving the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes
  • Switching to renewable sources of energy production and raw materials
  • Recycling industrial products such as scrap metal
  • Supporting carbon offset programs

What are greenhouse gases?

A portion of sunlight that hits the earth’s surface bounces back into space in the form of infrared heat. Gaseous chemical compounds in the atmosphere absorb and prevent infrared radiation from escaping, resulting in a greenhouse effect. These greenhouse gases tend to arise from natural sources and human processes.

The earth would be too cold to inhabit without naturally occurring greenhouse gases like water vapor and ozone. The prevailing mean temperature would be 35°C colder. However, human activity has considerably increased carbon emissions following the advent of large-scale industrialization in the mid-1800s.

Some of the most common greenhouse gases arising from human or anthropogenic processes include:

  • Carbon dioxide
  • Nitrous oxide
  • Methane
  • Industrial gases like hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons, and nitrogen trifluoride

The primary sources of carbon dioxide emissions

The natural processes resulting in carbon emissions include animal and plant respiration, organic decomposition, ocean-atmosphere exchange, and volcanic eruptions. A few of the human activities that contribute to greenhouse gases include:

The energy sector

The burning of fossil fuels for energy use and electricity production is the largest source of carbon emissions. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas mainly contain carbon and hydrogen. Upon combustion, oxygen in the atmosphere reacts with hydrogen forming water and carbon, in turn, forming carbon dioxide. The exothermic chemical reaction releases heat energy that plays different roles in our daily lives.

Each fossil fuel has a different carbon and hydrogen content that determines the amount of carbon dioxide and energy emitted. For instance, coal has a higher carbon content than natural gas and, as a result, produces double the amount of greenhouse gas. In 2021, coal met more than 38% of the U.S. energy needs. The total annual energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were above 36%.

The energy sector can lower its carbon footprint by:

  • Improving the fuel efficiency of existing power plants
  • Switching to less carbon-intensive fuels
  • Encouraging the use of solar, wind, and hydroelectric power
  • Employing carbon capture and sequestration practices

Commercial buildings

Residential and commercial buildings accounted for almost 40% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This sector’s direct carbon emissions come from burning fossil fuels to meet space heating needs. Hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration systems and air conditioning may also leak during the product’s service life.

The decomposition of organic waste and wastewater from commercial buildings contributes to direct carbon emissions. Using electricity in commercial buildings leads to indirect emissions at offsite power plants. Commercial buildings can achieve carbon negativity by:

  • Lowering energy consumption through improved energy efficiency
  • Reducing organic, wastewater, and solid waste deposition in landfills
  • Using appliances with reduced global warming potential
  • Utilizing renewable energy sources

Calculate your home's carbon footprint in seconds!

Transportation

The transport sector is the second largest human source of carbon emissions. Transporting people and commodities around the globe is an energy-intensive process. 90% of automobiles mainly use petroleum-based fuels like diesel, gasoline, and kerosene to meet their energy needs.  

In 2020, petroleum was the source of over 35% of U.S. energy use and accounted for nearly half of the annual energy-related carbon emissions. Road users make up a significant chunk of the transport sector that accommodates small cars; light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks; and freight vehicles. The marine sector also contributes the global carbon dioxide emissions considerably.

The transport sector can lower carbon emissions from cars by:

  • Using renewable or low carbon fuels
  • Switching to electric or hybrid vehicles
  • Improving fuel efficiency through advanced designs, technologies, and materials
  • Changing transportation trends by encouraging walking or cycling

Aviation

The growth of the aviation industry has seriously impacted global warming as it is one of the most carbon-intensive means of transport. The U.S. has the largest commercial flight traffic network contributing to about 10% of the total transport sector’s carbon emission. The aviation sector can invest in innovations to reduce this source of carbon emissions. A few examples include:

  • Designs and engine improvements
  • Denser seat configurations
  • Higher passenger loads
  • Low carbon fuel

Agriculture

The agricultural sector mainly comprises crop farming and livestock rearing for food. Various agricultural activities promote greenhouse gas emissions. The management of agricultural lands contributes to more than half of emissions from the agricultural sector. For instance, using organic and synthetic fertilizers, draining organic soils, and growing nitrogen-fixing bacteria cause nitrous oxide emissions.

Ruminating livestock, like cattle, release methane as part of their natural digestive process. The methane emission from enteric fermentation contributes to about a quarter of the carbon emissions due to agriculture. Poor manure management further adds to livestock emissions. Other small carbon emissions by source include carbon dioxide from urea application and liming as well as methane from rice cultivation and burning crop biomass.

Adjusting land, crop, and livestock management can help lower agricultural carbon emissions. The improved farming practices you can adopt are

  • Using the appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer,
  • Enhancing the quality of animal feeds to reduce methane production, and
  • Depositing manure on pasture or handling it as a solid.

Deforestation

Plants are crucial to the global carbon cycle. They act as natural carbon sinks that help lower carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. The indiscriminate cutting down of trees for timber or for expanding land acreage causes an imbalance between carbon emissions and absorption.

The plants help trap the absorbed carbon as biomass belowground and aboveground during their lifespan. Soil containing organic matter also helps to sequester some of the carbon depending on the prevailing environmental conditions. The emission or sequestration of greenhouse gases may occur depending on land use.

Minimizing the conversion of forest lands to croplands, settlements, or grasslands helps to maintain natural carbon stores. Afforestation can further help accelerate increased forest cover and relieve the earth of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Help decarbonize the world with clean renewable energy

The energy sector, industrial processes, commercial buildings, transportation, agriculture, and deforestation are leading human causes of carbon emissions. Tackling the individual contributors can help minimize climate change by restoring balance to the carbon cycle and global warming. Contact Power Wizard for further inquiries on energy-efficient practices and renewable energy sources.  

 

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