CO2 emissions worldwide have now surpassed 28 billion tons per year annually and at the current pace are projected to reach over 40 billion tons per year by 2025. Some GHG gases like hydro fluorocarbons, methane and nitrous oxide are released as by-products of certain industrial processes, which adversely affect the ozone layer, leading to global warming.
According to a recent report by esteemed former World Bank chief economist Dr. Nicholas Stern, "Attempts to continue along the current unsustainable pathway will increasingly be thwarted as melting ice caps, higher temperatures, heavier storms, longer droughts, more frequent floods and rising sea levels exert an ever heavier toll on wellbeing and lives. Ignoring the problem will undermine our standard of living, and eventually harm economic growth."
At the current pace world carbon dioxide emissions are expected to increase by 1.9 percent annually between 2001 and 2025. Much of the increase in these emissions is expected to occur in the developing world where emerging economies, such as China and India, fuel economic development with fossil energy. Developing countries emissions are expected to grow above the world average at 2.7 percent annually between 2001 and 2025; and surpass emissions of industrialized countries near 2018.
World Carbon Dioxide Emissions and future projections from the consumption and burning of fossil fuels 1990 to 2030:
Sources: 1990 and 2003: Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Energy Annual 2003 (May - July 2005), www.eia.doe.gov/iea/. 2010-2030 EIA, System for the Analysis of Global Energy Markets (2006).
Note: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consists of 30 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, and the United States.
There are about 60 to 200 million spaces along our city streets where trees could be planted. This translates to absorbing 22 million more tonnes of CO2 per year and saving $4 billion in energy costs.
