Thread by @Peters_Glen

What sectors are causing the largest changes in fossil CO₂ emissions?
1. Electricity dominates (green), but recent declines
2. Road transport is growing ~2%/yr (orange)
3-7. Industry sub-sectors growing ~2-4%/yr, some recent declines
8. Aviation growing 2%/yr, from low base

1/

Note data is to 2016.

The recent declines, particularly in electricity & industry, relate to changes in China.

Road transport is a big & growing sector.

Aviation gets a lot of attention, & yes it is growing, but some industry sectors are bigger & growing faster!

2/

Aviation is 3% of global emissions & growing, & yes, emissions need to be mitigated as for other sectors.

Yes, individual action is easier & obvious with aviation, & this probably explains its current out-sized focus among activists.

3/

Emissions from a single road trip are low, but people drive a lot, & so emissions are huge.

The emissions from a short & innocent road trip are easily ignored, but how many innocent trips in one year? On aggregate, road has huge growth...

4/

Metals, chemicals, cement, etc. Very abstract sectors for most consumers. When did you last buy a tonne of steel?

But, our infrastructure, fridges, TVs, chairs, phones, clothes, are all based on industrial products. These sectors grow in line with consumption & investment.

5/

Everything you do, everything you buy, pretty much all directly or indirectly depends on electricity.

Solutions are most obvious for electricity, but don't forget many in the world need more electricity to improve their lives & that will put pressure on emissions growth...

6/

It is great to see people getting fired up by aviation & taking action. Great.

Continue applying pressure on aviation, but don't forgot to keep the pressure on the bigger fish too...

7/7

Bonus: This thread only considers fossil CO₂ emissions, but about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are non-CO₂.

Most non-CO₂ is related to food, & there are lots of individual actions can make around food...