SLOWING CLIMATE CHANGE BY REDUCING EMISSIONS: MITIGATION - The Climate Casino - page 160

cost-effective way to reduce CO 2 emissions is to reduce the use of coal
fi rst and most sharply.
CO 2 EMISSIONS FROM THE HOUSEHOLD PERSPECTIVE
This is all very abstract. So let us move to the statistically average
American household. We can calculate household emissions by divid-
ing the national totals by the 115 million households in the United
States. Table 6 shows the CO 2 emissions per household from different
activities. 4 Driving is the largest single source of emissions, at about 8
tons per year. Heating and cooling are also large items. If we add all the
listed sources, they total 20 tons per household per year.
But this still leaves about 32 tons per year for everything else. You
might well wonder what that “everything else” in Table 6 is. In fact, CO 2
releases are involved in every aspect of household life because fossil
fuels are used directly or indirectly in the production of all goods and
services used by households. CO 2 is emitted from the coal used to pro-
duce the steel used to produce the kitchen table; from the natural gas
used to heat the hospital to provide emergency services; from the diesel
fuel used to power the tractor used to grow the wheat used in the baker's
bread.
However, all activities are not equally CO 2 intensive. Coal-fi red
electricity generation is the biggest single source of CO 2 emissions in the
United States, so activities that rely heavily on this input are CO 2 inten-
sive. Other CO 2 -intensive activities include cement, iron, and steel pro-
duction. There are yet further non-CO 2 GHGs that affect the climate. One
example is the methane released through “enteric fermentation,” which
refers to the methane released from the digestive tracts of cattle. Even an
innocuous-looking glass of milk has an effect on future climate.
What sectors are relatively CO 2 free, or have only the tiniest climatic
impact per unit of expenditure? The emissions per dollar of output are
smallest in services. For example, health, architectural, accounting, in-
surance, fi nance, and legal services have emissions per unit of output
about one-fi fth of the economy as a whole. So while you may dislike your
bank, it has the virtue of having a tiny carbon footprint. 5