A review of trends and drivers of greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2018

Lamb, William F.; Wiedmann, Thomas; Pongratz, Julia; Andrew, Robbie M.; Crippa, Monica; Olivier, J. G. J.; Wiedenhofer, Dominik; Mattioli, Giulio; Khourdajie, Alaa Al; House, Joanna I.; Pachauri, Shonali; Figueroa, Maria J.; Saheb, Yamina; Slade, Raphael; Hubacek, Klaus; Sun, Laixiang; Ribeiro, Suzana Kahn; Khennas, Smail; Can, Stephane de la Rue du; Chapungu, Lazarus; Davis, Steven J.; Башмаков, И. А.; Dai, Hancheng; Dhakal, Shobhakar; Tan, Xianjun; Geng, Yong; Gu, Baihe; Minx, Jan C.

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abee4e

Cited by 673 publications

(337 citation statements)

References 177 publications

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“…Since 2010, energy intensity and total carbon emissions have declined most sharply in countries that had adopted a wide raft of strengthened policies on energy efficiency across all sectors (140). Lamb et al (139) showed this occurred across all sectors for all regions of the world. Indeed, Maamoun (141), using extensive econometric analysis, showed how participating in the Kyoto Protocol led to an average increase in national CO 2 reductions of 7%.…”

Section: Net Impacts Of Energy Efficiency Policies On Energy Use: Macro Evidencementioning

confidence: 93%

“…Evaluating the impact of energy efficiency and related policies on actual energy consumption presents a challenge: determining what would have happened in the absence of the policy (i.e., what is the counterfactual). A comparison across regions seems indicative that the trend of global energy efficiency (using energy intensity as its proxy, with all the caveats already described in Sections 2 and 3) has accelerated somewhat since the early to mid-2000s, in parallel with both rising energy prices and a rapid expansion of energy policies associated with rising climate change concerns and international commitments (139). The decomposition analysis in Reference 139, consistent with much other data, makes it clear that at least three-quarters of these emission savings were due to energy intensity improvements rather than to decarbonizing energy supply.…”

Section: Net Impacts Of Energy Efficiency Policies On Energy Use: Macro Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?

Saunders

Roy

Azevedo

et al. 2021

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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This article presents a critical assessment of 40 years of research that may be brought under the umbrella of energy efficiency, spanning different aggregations and domains—from individual producing and consuming agents to economy-wide effects to the role of innovation to the influence of policy. After 40 years of research, energy efficiency initiatives are generally perceived as highly effective. Innovation has contributed to lowering energy technology costs and increasing energy productivity. Energy efficiency programs in many cases have reduced energy use per unit of economic output and have been associated with net improvements in welfare, emission reductions, or both. Rebound effects at the macro level still warrant careful policy attention, as they may be nontrivial. Complexity of energy efficiency dynamics calls for further methodological and empirical advances, multidisciplinary approaches, and granular data at the service level for research in this field to be of greatest societal benefit. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Section: Net Impacts Of Energy Efficiency Policies On Energy Use: Macro Evidencementioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Net Impacts Of Energy Efficiency Policies On Energy Use: Macro Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?

Saunders

Roy

Azevedo

et al. 2021

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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“…While there is a growing number of countries today on a sustained emission reduction trajectory (Lamb et al, 2021b;Le Quéré et al, 2019a), it is important to study the drivers of these reductions as well as patterns of emission growth in other parts of the world (Lamb et al, 2021a). Our analysis further reveals that there are no global sectors that show sustained reductions in GHG emissions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

A comprehensive dataset for global, regional and national greenhouse gas emissions by sector 1970–2019

Minx

Lamb

Andrew

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. To track progress towards keeping warming well below 2 °C, as agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, comprehensive and reliable information on anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is required. Here we provide a dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions 1970–2019 with a broad country and sector coverage. We build the dataset from recent releases of the “Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research” (EDGAR) for CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI), CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, and fluorinated gases, and use a well-established fast-track method to extend this dataset from 2018 to 2019. We complement this with data on net CO2 emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) from three bookkeeping models. We provide an assessment of the uncertainties in each greenhouse gas at the 90 % confidence interval (5th–95th percentile) by combining statistical analysis and comparisons of global emissions inventories with an expert judgement informed by the relevant scientific literature. We identify important data gaps: CH4 and N2O emissions could be respectively 10–20 % higher than reported in EDGAR once all emissions are accounted. F-gas emissions estimates for individual species in EDGARv5 do not align well with atmospheric measurements and the F-gas total exceeds measured concentrations by about 30 %. However, EDGAR and official national emission reports under the UNFCCC do not comprehensively cover all relevant F-gas species. Excluded F-gas species such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are larger than the sum of the reported species. GHG emissions in 2019 amounted to 59 ± 6.6 GtCO2eq: CO2 emissions from FFI were 38 ± 3.0 Gt, CO2 from LULUCF 6.6 ± 4.6 Gt, CH4 11 ± 3.3 GtCO2eq, N2O 2.4 ±1.5 GtCO2eq and F-gases 1.6 ± 0.49 GtCO2eq. Our analysis of global, anthropogenic GHG emission trends over the past five decades (1970–2019) highlights a pattern of varied, but sustained emissions growth. There is high confidence that global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased every decade. Emission growth has been persistent across different (groups of) gases. While CO2 has accounted for almost 75 % of the emission growth since 1970 in terms of CO2eq as reported here, the combined F-gases have grown at a faster rate than other GHGs, albeit starting from low levels in 1970. Today, F-gases make a non-negligible contribution to global warming – even though CFCs and HCFCs, regulated under the Montreal Protocol and not included in our estimates, have contributed more. There is further high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emission levels were higher in 2010-2019 than in any previous decade and GHG emission levels have grown across the most recent decade. While average annual greenhouse gas emissions growth slowed between 2010–2019 compared to 2000–2009, the absolute increase in average decadal GHG emissions from the 2000s to the 2010s has been the largest since the 1970s – and within all human history as suggested by available long-term data. We note considerably higher rates of change in GHG emissions between 2018 and 2019 than for the entire decade 2010–2019, which is numerically comparable with the period of high GHG emissions growth during the 2000s, but we place low confidence in this finding as the majority of the growth is driven by highly uncertain increases in CO2-LULUCF emissions as well as the use of preliminary data and extrapolation methodologies for these most recent years. While there is a growing number of countries today on a sustained emission reduction trajectory, our analysis further reveals that there are no global sectors that show sustained reductions in GHG emissions. We conclude by highlighting that tracking progress in climate policy requires substantial investments in independent GHG emission accounting and monitoring as well as the available national and international statistical infrastructures. The data associated with this article (Minx et al. 2021) can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5053056.

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“…Technological innovation and improvement have long been at the center of policies and approaches to improving the energy performance and reducing the energy consumption of buildings, but technology alone will not achieve their energy-saving goals. People and their energy behaviors in buildings must be included in the research and measures to improve energy efficiency [16]. This leads to the second approach, by which energy saving in office buildings is obtained through changes in the individual behaviors of employees.…”

Section: Emerging Importance Of Human Behavior As Energy Saving Factormentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Incentives on Employees to Change Thermostat Settings—A Field Study

Zalewska

2021

Energies

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When looking for energy-saving solutions, one should bear in mind the savings that can be obtained through behavioral changes. The article shows that a simple incentive can have a statistically significant impact on employees’ pro-ecological behavior. First, the introduction refers to the general perspective of striving for a global implementation of the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs). Additionally, the stakeholders’ point of view is presented, based on reports submitted to the Responsible Business Forum competition (Poland). The two motivating trends are referenced, which include increasing the contribution of powering office buildings to the overall energy demand and increasing the appreciation of behavioral changes as alternatives or complements to technological solutions in pursuit of the SDGs. The following sections of the article present an experiment carried out at one faculty of the University of Warsaw, which consisted of checking the effect of the incentive to lower the temperature in offices after working hours on the actual change in the behavior of the employees. After several weeks of observation of end-of-day thermostat settings in several dozen offices, a statistically significant effect was found. This proves that even simple incentives can lead to pro-ecological behavioral changes.

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A review of trends and drivers of greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2018

Cited by 673 publications

References 177 publications

Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?

Energy Efficiency: What Has Research Delivered in the Last 40 Years?

A comprehensive dataset for global, regional and national greenhouse gas emissions by sector 1970–2019

The Impact of Incentives on Employees to Change Thermostat Settings—A Field Study

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