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Whichindustriesandactivitiesemitthemostcarbon?|Environment|TheGuardian

Which industries and activities emit the

most carbon?
This question and answer is part of the Guardian's ultimate climate change FAQ

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Electricity generation and transmission is one of industrial sectors with the biggest carbon footprint. Photograph: Dan
Kitwood/Getty Images
Thursday 28 April 2011 11.10 BST

"Carbon" is shorthand for greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, methane, nitrous
oxide and F-gases. These gases are released by many dierent types of activity not just the
burning of fossil fuels, but also farming, deforestation and some industrial processes.
Global emissions can be allocated to human activities in various ways. One of the most
granular analyses is this one from the World Resources Institute (WRI), which breaks down
total global emissions from 2005 into the following headline sectors:
Energy
Electricity & heat (24.9%)
Industry (14.7%)
Transportation (14.3%)
Other fuel combustion (8.6%)
Fugitive emissions (4%)
Agriculture (13.8%)
Land use change (12.2%)
Industrial processes (4.3%)
Waste (3.2%)
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These sectors are then assigned to various end uses, giving the following results (nicely
visualised here):
Road transport (10.5%)
Air transport (excluding additional warming impacts) (1.7% )
Other transport (2.5%)
Fuel and power for residential buildings (10.2%)
Fuel and power for commercial buildings (6.3%)
Unallocated fuel combustion (3.8%)
Iron and steel production (4%)
Aluminium and non-ferrous metals production (1.2%)
Machinery production (1%)
Pulp, paper and printing (1.1%)
Food and tobacco industries (1.0%)
Chemicals production (4.1%)
Cement production (5.0%)
Other industry (7.0%)
Transmission and distribution losses (2.2%)
Coal mining (1.3%)
Oil and gas production (6.4%)
Deforestation (11.3%)
Reforestation (-0.4%)
Harvest and land management (1.3%)
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Agricultural
energy
use new
(1.4%)
Agricultural soils (5.2%)
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Livestock
and manure (5.4%)
Rice cultivation (1.5%)
Other cultivation (1.7%)
Landll of waste (1.7%)
Wastewater and other waste (1.5%)
It should be stressed that there is a fair degree of uncertainty about the precise contribution
of some activities, especially those which include biological processes such as land use
change and agriculture. Indeed, the total contribution from deforestation is much lower in
the data above than it was in the equivalent gures from 2000, due to a change in the
underlying methodology as described in the WRI's accompanying paper (pdf).
The other point to note is that emissions levels are permanently changing. Total global
emissions are signicantly higher now than they were in 2005, and the ratios between
sectors will also have changed. But global datasets take a long time to compile, hence there
is usually a multi-year lag before reliable gures are published.
The numbers provided above are broadly consistent with the 2004 data published in the
latest UN IPCC report.

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This answer last updated: 03.03.2011

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