Carbon Net-Zero by 2050: Benefits, Challenges and Way Forward

Environmental Research Letters, 2015

View the article online for updates and enhancements. Related content Carbon budgets and energy transition pathways Detlef P van Vuuren, Heleen van Soest, Keywan Riahi et al.-Mitigation choices impact carbon budget size compatible with low temperature goals Joeri Rogelj, Andy Reisinger, David L McCollum et al.-Impact of short-lived non-CO2 mitigation on carbon budgets for stabilizing global warming Joeri Rogelj, Malte Meinshausen, Michiel Schaeffer et al.-Recent citations Medhat A. Nemitallah et al-Thailand Energy System Transition to Keep Warming Below 1.5 Degrees Puttipong Chunark and Bundit Limmeechokchai-Robust climate change research: a review on multi-model analysis Hongbo Duan et al

IOSR Journals , 2019

CO 2 emissions caused by fossil fuel combustion & cement products considered as the most abundant greenhouse gas emissions associated with different economic activities in fossil fuel economy, and considered as an important driver of global warming & climate change activities. Global attention on sustainable development facilitated mitigation targets of pollutant emissions basically by continuous reduction in CO 2 emissions & sustainable policy implementations in recent decades. The studies on the impact of energy consumption & economic growth of a country on CO 2 emissions have been given high priority by many countries, but not much study on this aspect have been carried out in Sri Lanka. This study is therefore utilized the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) framework in order to investigate the impact of energy consumption & economic development on CO 2 emissions in Sri Lanka over the period of 1971-2014, using the E-Views computer application. The required secondary data was obtained from the World Bank data base. The analyses confirmed significantly that fitted VECM (1) model was highly stable encompassing white noise residuals. The significant long run variables' trend indicated that, a unit increase in present level of per capita CO 2 emissions & per capita economic growth influenced positively on successive change in level of per capita CO 2 emissions, which concluded that economic developments in Sri Lanka leads to greater CO 2 emissions in long run effectiveness. Surprisingly, a unit increasing demand of per capita fossil fuel energy consumption influenced negatively on successive change in level of per capita CO 2 emissions in long run association, this may because demand of fossil fuel energy in Sri Lanka is well below to trigger any significant conversion in CO 2 emissions compared to developed nations. On the foundation of empirical findings in this study, it indicated that energy conservation policies and sustainable economic growth have no adverse effect on CO 2 emissions in Sri Lanka in short run association. The analysis of impulse response functions suggested that positive shocks of CO 2 emissions have positive influence on its own increasing, on energy demand increase as well as on economic growth, and each positive influence has relatively long sustained effectiveness. The inferences derived in this study suggest that significant transformation of sustainable low carbon energy use and green energy policy implementations could contribute to control the CO 2 emissions while sustaining long run economic growth in Sri Lanka.

Report prepared for …, 2008

Though Sri Lanka's current carbon footprint is much less than the global vale, the country's existing and planned economic developments which in turn raised the demand for power has resulted an increase in GHG emission. The GHGs are emitted mostly by burning of fossil fuels for energy generation including transport. Thus one of the most effective ways of reducing emissions is to use renewable energy sources. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current phase of development in Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) source based electricity generation and its contribution to in the mitigation of GHG emission in Sri Lanka. Literature reviews and expert interviews were mainly used as the primary tool for this study. The current government policies have given a target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. Though the relevant authorities have taken considerable measures to encourage small power producers, it is the economic and practical realities that are holding back the development of renewable energy sector to reach the said targets by 2020. Government's decision to phase out dependence on oil for electricity generation and coal being the least cost option has driven the future generation to depend on coal fired power plants. However, Energy Balance 2011 has shown that the introduction of coal power plant has already escalated the country's CO 2 emission. Thus to prevent Sri Lanka being a significant mark in the world map of carbon footprint, immediate measures should be taken at least to reach the current renewable energy targets by 2020.

2020

The 1972 Stockholm declaration on the human environment led to constitution of first-generation conventions such as CITES, CMS, and WHC followed by the second-generation conventions such as CBD and UNFCCC that were adopted post 1991 as an outcome of Earth Summit and led to the development of holistic approaches to conservation reflecting the sensitivities of poverty, rural development, equal participation, sustainable use, education, and awareness. The UNFCCC makes it obligatory on all signatories to develop, publish, periodically update, and make available national inventory of GHGs, steps taken or envisaged to implement the Convention. India submitted its Initial National Communication (INC) to the UNFCCC in UNFCCC website https://unfccc.int entailing emissions inventory of 1994. Second National Communication (SNC) was submitted to the UNFCCC in 2012 wherein GHG inventory for the year 2000 was reported and a summary of GHG inventory for the year 2007 was provided as a proactive me...

Climate Policy, 2020

2025

Carbon emissions have emerged as a critical global concern due to their role in climate change and environmental degradation. This study provides a comparative analysis of carbon emissions per unit of production and total emissions across major economies, including India, the USA, China, Germany, Japan, France, the UK, and Australia. The findings highlight India's relatively high carbon intensity, driven by coal dependency in its industrial and energy sectors. In contrast, nations like France and Germany have significantly lower carbon emissions per unit of production due to their reliance on nuclear and renewable energy sources. The analysis further examines industry-specific carbon footprints in India, particularly in steel, cement, aluminum, petroleum refining, and textiles. The study also discusses global carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, which have reached 427 ppm as of 2024, with annual global CO₂ emissions standing at 37.5 gigatons. Additionally, it evaluates the effectiveness of emission reduction strategies, including renewable energy transitions, carbon pricing mechanisms, and industrial efficiency improvements

European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2020

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability , 2019

Climate Change (CC) is universally recognized as a major global threat due to its nature of impacts. Island nations are known to be the most vulnerable to CC impacts where many countries have initiated mitigation and adaptation actions through sector-based policy measures. Singapore and Sri Lanka are two Asian island nations with CC induced threats. Two countries are different in terms of economic development, but similar developing countries in the CC agenda. In this context, both the countries have initiated mitigation and adaptation actions through policy measures. This study compares the key climate driven performance indicators with historical data to evaluate the performance of climate change policy of each country. Generally, policy evaluation has been conducted by adopting scientific and non-scientific tools, but it is seldom see that the relation of climate driven indicators along with CC policy. Also the policy research was mostly based on European case studies and Asian island nations were not easy to find in this context. The comparison of two countries in terms of CC policy is to determine the key vulnerable sectors where intervention is necessary for island nations. Mitigation policies are evaluated in Singapore and Sri Lanka using GHG emission pathways under twelve (12) indicators and adaptation policies are measured under the national expenditure of key sectors of the economy under seven (07) indicators. The analysis further elaborated by comparing both countries with key economic sectors that has positive and negative influence on CC impacts. Finally, the analysis outcome is used for lessons to learn from each other in improving the CC policy of Singapore and Sri Lanka. As every country has a unique set of strategies to minimize contributions to CC impacts, unique features that are common to both countries are chosen as variables for the comparison. Policy recommendations are provided to implement solid action plan for post 2020. The study expects to assist island countries to strengthen the CC policy as a national priority to manage unforeseen impacts posed by CC phenomena.