Full Title: Global Green Growth: Clean Energy Industrial Investments and Expanding Job Opportunities
Author(s): United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the Global Green Growth Institute
Publisher(s): United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the Global Green Growth Institute
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
As of 2010, total world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions amounted to about 45,000 million metric tons (mmt). In order to control climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that total emissions will need to fall by about 40 percent as of 2030, to 27,000 mmt, and by 80 percent by 2050, to about 9,000 mmt.
Of the 45,000 mmt of total GHG emissions, about 82 percent are generated by energy-based sources. This includes 33,615 in CO2 emissions from energy sources, equaling about 75 percent of total GHG emissions itself.
This report focuses on measures to reduce CO2 emissions from energy-based sources. Expressed on a per capita basis, global CO2 emissions in 2010 averaged 4.6 metric tons (mt). We can express our intermediate emissions reduction goals in terms of this measure, within the framework of reducing the absolute level of carbon emissions by 40 percent, to round 20,000 mmt, within 20 years. With global population expected to rise to about 8.4 billion by 2030, this means that carbon emissions will need to be at no more than 2.4 mt per capita within 20 years.