Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1
List of countries by 2012 emissions (PBL
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
2013
)
S. No.
carbon), but the generation of more CO
2
from
human and industrial activities disturbs the car-
bon cycle resulting in the alteration of atmo-
spheric CO
2
level. It would not be wrong to say
that every human activity, whether it is domestic
or commercial, from pin to aircraft, is responsi-
ble for releasing some CO
2
into the atmosphere.
According to the data presented by Scripps CO
2
Program at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, the
CO
2
level in the atmosphere recorded in
September 15, 2013, is 391.31 parts per million
(ppm), but the troublesome thing is that the CO
2
level is increasing year by year at a startling rate
(
www.CO
2
now.org
). Figure
2
shows a serious
picture of increase of CO
2
level in the atmosphere
from 2004 to 2013. The chart revealed that CO
2
concentration is increased by 5.15 % in the last
10 years. Therefore, this troublesome situation of
rapid boost in CO
2
level in the Earth's atmo-
sphere is a big challenge for all to think about a
sustainable environment in the future, and in
addition this issue propels us to think about the
control of GHG emissions which is unquestion-
ably essential to make Earth a suitable place for
all human beings.
In order to reduce GHG emissions, a frame-
work was formed by the United Nations, viz.
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. UNFCCC
was formed in a notable conference, viz. United
Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) hosted by Brazil at Rio
de Janeiro which is considered as an important
Earth Summit. About 172 governments (with 108
at level of state or government) and many non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) participated
in the conference, and the main topic of the
conference was environment and sustainable
development. The main and important result that
came from the UNCED summit was that there is
an interrelation between many social, economic
and environmental factors and environmental
issues, economic matters and social justice
issues. In addition to this, other appreciated out-
comes of the UNCED were Rio Declaration, for-
mation of UNFCCC, formation of Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) and statement of for-
est principles (
www.CO
2
now.org
).
Country
Million tonnes of CO
2
1
China
9,900
2
The United States
5,200
3
India
1,970
4
Russian Federation
1,770
5
Japan
1,320
6
Germany
810
7
South Korea
640
8
Canada
560
9
The United Kingdom
490
10
Mexico
490
industrialization and agriculture sectors are
valuable and splendid signs of development but
are also the main sources of GHG emissions. All
nations of the world are trying passionately to
enhance their TIE (technology, industrialization
and energy) for economic development. Although
technology and industrialization are the wheels
of development and are very essential, above all
energy/power is the main requirement to drive
the vehicle of development. Today almost all
nations depend on fossil fuels and other petro-
leum product (having a fast-depleting nature and
the main source of GHG emissions)-based power
generations to fulfi l their power requirement.
Consequently, power generation contributes to
the major portion of total global GHG emissions
(US EPA). Table
1
shows the list of countries
having major role in producing the world's total
emissions (PBL Netherlands Environmental
Assessment Agency
2013
). According to the list,
the largest producer of greenhouse emissions is
China. After this the United States, India, Russian
Federation and Japan are other major GHG con-
tributors. Finally, a polluted and contaminated
environment is the outcome of such economic
development shown in Fig.
1
.
Carbon dioxide (CO
2
), methane (CH
4
), nitrous
oxide (N
2
O) and some other fl uorinated gases are
the main constituents of GHG that contaminate
the Earth's atmosphere. CO
2
is the main GHG
produced by almost all human, commercial and
industrial activities. CO
2
present in the atmo-
sphere is part of the carbon cycle (i.e. relation
among animals, plants, soil, etc., to exchange
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