So far, ‘EIA’ has been the source of national CO2 Emissions in ClimatePositions. EIA include emissions from burning of fossil fuel, including bunker fuels (fuels used for international aviation and maritime transport). Globally, bunker fuels account for about 3% of all fossil fuel CO2 Emissions.

By January 2016, the source of CO2 Emissions used in ClimatePositions switches to ‘Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)’, or simply Global Carbon Project. CDIAC also include emissions from burning of fossil fuel, but exclude emissions from bunker fuels (fuels used for international aviation and maritime transport), and instead include ‘CO2 Emissions from cement production’. Emissions from cement production (and oxidation) amount to about 5% of all fossil fuel emissions, globally. The total annual national carbon emissions at the source are subsequently converted¹ to per capita CO2 Emissions for the use in ClimatePositions. Note that emissions 2012-2014 are preliminary estimates².

For comparison, the table below shows the national shares of the global Climate Debt, respectively, with CO2 Emission data from 1) Global Carbon Project (CDIAC) and 2) EIA. Countries with increased Climate Debt, relatively, due to the conversion of sources are marked in red. The global Climate Debt will only be slightly affected by the change (the global Climate Debt is 5.7 trillion by Januar 2016).

From today, Global Carbon Project will be used as source of CO2 Emissions in ClimatePositions. New rankings are available in the menu “Climate Debt”. More comments below the table.

The majority of the 84 countries with Climate Debt in Climatepositions remain approximately at the same level of Climate Debt after the conversion. However, one or two dozen of the countries experience significant changes and Singapore drops dramatically due to an extreme impact from bunker fuels.

CO2 Emissions from cement production causes global warming aligned with burning of fossil fuels and must be reduced as well. The raw materials needed to produce cement are extracted from limestone rock, chalk, shale, or clay. These materials are won from quarries by extraction or blasting. In 2013 the ‘world’s fifteen largest cement producers’, accounting for 88% of the global production, were: China (62.0% of the global production), India (7.0%), Indonesia (2.1%), United States (1.9%), Iran (1.9%), Turkey (1.8%), Brazil (1.8%), Russia (1.6%), Vietnam (1.6%), Japan (1.3%), Saudi Arabia (1.3%), South Korea (1.2%), Egypt (1.2%), Mexico (0.9%) and Thailand (0.9%).

CO2 Emissions from international bunkers also causes global warming and must be reduced. However, guidelines of national emission responsibility are not yet operational or even well defined. In 2012 the ‘world’s fifteen largest consumers of bunker fuels’, accounting for 68% of the global consumption, were: Singapore (16.87% of the global consumption), United States (12.69%), United Arab Emirates (6.83%), China (5.53%), Netherlands (4.58%), Russia (3.21%), South Korea (2.89%), Spain (2.71%), Brazil (2.17%), Belgium (1.98%), India (1.89%), Saudi Arabia (1.82%), Thailand (1.77%), South Africa (1.57%) and Japan (1.35%).

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¹Annual total carbon emissions are converted to per capita carbon dioxide emissions by multiplying by 3.664 and divided by the population (source: ‘World Bank’) from the same year.

²Global Carbon Budget’s preliminary emission estimates are based on BP’s ‘Energy Review of the World’.

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Source on CO2 Emissions from fossil fuels (without bunkers) and cement production: ‘Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)’ (Global Carbon Project).

Drawing by Claus Andersen, 2016.