City CO2 Emissions Per Capita

Through highlighting CO2 emissions per capita, a new report issued by the International Institute for Environment and Development may throw many peoples’ preconceptions on the distinction between people living in city and country areas into disarray. City-dwellers, it found, were responsible for less in the way of emissions than those with country homes and, frequently, these emissions represented only a tiny portion of national averages.

“Although the concentration of people, enterprises, vehicles and waste in cities is often seen as a 'problem', high densities and large population concentrations can also bring a variety of advantages”, the report – which linked up the results of a number of previous studies – stated.

While the British capital, London, featured, the report also assessed other dominant European cities, as well as those in the United States, South America and Asia. In all cases, the cities were profiled in terms of CO2 emissions released per capita.

London Carbon Emissions

The report found that London emissions for the year 2006 totalled 44.3 million tons – eight per cent of those generated by the nation as a whole. Based on a seven million-strong population, this 44.3 million equated down to 6.18 tons for each resident.

New York, meanwhile, produced a 7.1 tons/ person figure – on the basis of an overall reading of 58.3 million tons. In this instance, the data related to 2005.

In both cases, though, only direct emissions were taken into account. Those linked to the manufacture of items used by people living in the cities, for example, were not.

Importantly, though, both London’s 6.18 tons and New York’s 7.1 tons were substantially less than the national average figures of 11.19 tons, and 23.92 tons, respectively. Where New York was concerned, the report highlighted factors contributing to this discrepancy, and these included houses not as extensive as those sited elsewhere in the country, and the tendency of New York residents to favour public transport over private motor vehicles.

Overall, only two cities were noted as having higher individual emission rates than those found across the board, and these were Shanghai and Beijing – both of them, factory-heavy areas.

“Many polluting and carbon-intensive manufacturing processes are no longer located in Europe or North America, sited elsewhere in the world to take advantage of lower labour costs and less rigorous environmental enforcement”, the report wrote.

National Grid Carbon Reduction

In related news, UK utilities group National Grid has announced that it plans to have achieved a 45 per cent carbon emission reduction by 2020.

Its pledge comes within a wider UK target involving an 80 per cent greenhouse gas emission cut by 2050.