SHDrivesOnTrack

SHDrivesOnTrack t1_it5tgwy wrote

So if I understand the way this chart is presented, the reduction in CO2 is based on the current year vs the peak year for a country, regardless of how long ago the peak occurred.

So based on that, it makes it hard to tell from this chart if the CO2 reduction is recent or a long term trend. Also, the chart doesn't state what year was used for the final point of comparison. If it was 2020, the data may be skewed due to all the work from home.

For example, CO2 in the UK peaked in the 70's based on a chart on this wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_Kingdom

I suspect if you dig into it, you may find that the biggest change in the last 40 years is that electrical generation using coal has been slowly replaced replaced by natural gas. This change was mainly driven by the economics of cheap natural gas due to the advent of fracking. Because coal is almost all carbon, almost all the emissions are CO2. Natural gas is made of both hydrogen and carbon, so about half of the exhaust is water vapor, and the other half is CO2. Combined cycle natural gas power plants are more efficient so you get more electricity as well.

On that wikipedia page I noted above, take a look at the "energy consumption by source" chart and notice how coal used to be 50% of the UKs energy, and now its just a sliver.

In the US, the shift away from coal is also happening, but not to the same extent. Similar charts on this wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States

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