REDUCING EMISSIONS FROM HOMES AND BUSINESSES

REDUCING EMISSIONS FROM HOMES AND BUSINESSES

The residential and commercial sectors include all homes and commercial businesses (excluding agricultural and industrial activities). Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector come from fossil fuel combustion for heating and cooking needs, management of waste and wastewater, and leaks from refrigerants in homes and businesses. Indirect emissions, resulting from electricity consumed by homes and businesses, are discussed on the Electricity Sector page.

Residential and commercial activities contribute to emissions in a variety of ways:

    Combustion of natural gas and petroleum products for heating and cooking needs emits carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Emissions from natural gas consumption represent about 79% of the direct fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the residential and commercial sectors. Coal consumption is a minor component of energy use in both of these sectors.

    Organic waste sent to landfills emits CH4.

    Wastewater treatment plants emit CH4 and N2O.

    Fluorinated gases (mainly hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs) used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems can be released during servicing or from leaking equipment.

Emissions and Trends

In 2012, direct GHG emissions from homes and businesses accounted for approximately 10% of total U.S. GHG emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from homes and businesses have generally been increasing since 1990, but vary from year to year based on short-term fluctuations in energy consumption caused by weather conditions. Total residential and commercial GHG emissions in 2012 have decreased by about 8% since 1990. Greenhouse gas emissions from on-site energy combustion in homes and businesses have decreased by about 13% since 1990 due to efficiency improvements in the residential and commercial sectors. However, indirect emissions from electricity use by homes and businesses have increased by 26% since 1990, due to increasing electricity consumption for lighting, heating, air conditioning, and appliances.

 Line graph of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from home and business for 1990 to 2012. There are three lines - one for total emissions, a second for direct emissions, and a third shows indirect emissions from electricity. The indirect and total emissions lines rise slowly throughout the time span, with a slight decline around 2008 and 2009 continuing unsteadily through 2012. The indirect greenhouse gas emissions start at about 1,200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents and peaks around 1,700 million around 2007. Total emissions are around 2,100 million in 2012. The direct emissions remain relatively constant throughout the time series, around 750 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.

The table shown below provides some examples of opportunities to reduce emissions from homes and businesses. For a more comprehensive list of options and a detailed assessment of how each option affects different gases, see Chapter 8 of the Contribution of Working Group III to IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report. Link to EPA's External Link Disclaimer

Homes and Commercial Buildings	Reducing energy use through energy efficiency.	Homes and commercial buildings use large amounts of energy for heating, cooling, lighting, and other functions. "Green building" techniques and retrofits can allow new and existing buildings to use less energy to accomplish the same functions, leading to fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Techniques to improve building energy efficiency include better insulation; more energy-efficient heating, cooling, ventilation, and refrigeration systems; efficient fluorescent lighting; passive heating and lighting to take advantage of sunlight; and the purchase of energy-efficient appliances and electronics. Learn more about ENERGY STAR.
Wastewater Treatment	Making water and wastewater systems more energy efficient.	Drinking water and wastewater systems account for approximately 3-4% of energy use in the United States. Studies estimate potential savings of 15-30% that are "readily achievable" in water and wastewater plants. Learn more about Energy Efficiency for Water and Wastewater Utilities.
Waste Management	Reducing solid waste sent to landfills. Capturing and using methane produced in current landfills.	Landfill gas is the natural by-product of the decomposition of solid waste in landfills. It primarily consists of CO2 and CH4. Well established, low-cost methods to reduce greenhouse gases from consumer waste exist, including recycling programs, waste reduction programs, and landfill methane capture programs. Learn about EPA's waste reduction and resource conservation efforts. Learn more about climate change and waste. Learn about EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program, which promotes the recovery and use of landfill gas.
Refrigeration	Reducing leakage from refrigeration equipment. Using refrigerants with lower GWPs.	Commonly used refrigerants include ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants, often HCFC-22, and blends consisting entirely or primarily of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), both of which are potent greenhouse gases. In recent years there have been several advancements in refrigeration technology that can help food retailers reduce both refrigerant charges and refrigerant emissions. Learn more about EPA's Greenchill Program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commercial refrigerators.

A TEXT BOOK ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

A Text Book on Environmental Studies

Edited by Sukanta Sarkar

Mangalam Publishers and Distributors,NewDelhi,2014,vii+319,price 1050/

This edited book contains 22 articles on environment which are  classified by environmental imbalance,women and climate change,pollution, deforestation,and sustainable development.

Environmental imbalance covers imbalance ,crisis,warming and hydroelectricity, heatwave and wildfire,ozone depletion,and solution.

Gender and and climate change covers climate negotiations,climate change and biodiversity,GHG,tribal people and climate change,politics of gender and climate change,and water scarcity.

In the pollution part, deforestation,mining and deforestation and force of deforestation in tribals were discussed.

In the sustainable development part, the articles on need for environmental protection ,policy of relocation and rehabilization of population living in Dal lake,impact of over exploitation of forest resources,environmental education and ecolabels and greenovators were included.

Dr.Debesh Bhowmik and Dr.Preeti Kathuria on their article “Climate Change Negotiations:The Crises on Environment and the Way Forward” discussed the climate change agreements from international institutions like WMO,IPCC, UNFCCC, UNEP,WTO etc and their reports and recommendations.The results and impacts of all the historical negotiations is explained in this article.Its impact on REDD, LULUCF, GCF were explained in details.The future of warming and the task before the negotiators was analysed in the context of climate finance targets. Why it is the central part of the global warming is clarified fruitfully.(p93-108)

THE NATURE OF INDIA'S INFLATION RATE

NATURE OF INDIA’S INFLATION RATE

Inflation rates of the emerging economies as measured by CPI  have been shown in figure where India’s CPI is moving upward sharply from 2005 to 2010 and started to fall.But between 2008-2010,all the emerging economies like China,Brazil,Malaysia ,Russia and Thailand fell speedily and then started to increase.During 2005-2010,India stayed within the range of 5-15% and Russia’s average inflation is all time high and low cyclically.

India’s inflation rate ie consumer price index as measured by CPI-IW,CPI-AW and CPI-RW are shown as exstremely volatile during 1995-2010 and they are partly cyclical in nature .Between 2000-2010 , the rates are lying below 5% but between 2005-10 they crossed more than 10% .After financial crisis they fell down sharply and in 1998 the rates reached at top at 20%.

The ratio of growth rate of producers Price Index and wholesale price index has the cyclical behavior during 2005-2011 as observed from the data of multicountry like India, China ,Brazil,Malaysia,Russia and Thailand.During the financial crisis it stood top and then fell steeply and also rose sharly.Of them Russia’s rate is quite high during 2005-2011.

Thus, the nature of India’s inflation rate is not all different from other emerging economies. We should remind that the Euro area facing several crises but it has inflation rate ranging from 2-4% and in USA  the rate lies between 3-6% in last two decades.  

The world share of SDR of USA

The world share of SDR of USA

The world share of SDR of the USA is not so enough to supply international liquidity to maintain world balance of payments equilibrium.US SDR share ranges between 25-30% during 1971 to 2013.The US world share of SDR is increasing slowly at the rate of 0.47% per year during the period of 1971-2013.But this rate is not enough to meet liquidity. The estimated equation is given below,

Log(x) = 3.2601+0.004716t

                (30.08)* (1.099)

 R²= 0.0286  , DW= 0.2125  , and F= 1.207 where x= world share of SDR of USA

The t value of the trend line is insignificant, F value is insignificant and also DW  and R² are very low. So, this trend line is statistically insignificant.

In the figure the estimated line is shown by green line and the SDR series is the red line and the other is the residual.

But the share of SDR of USA is stationary during this course. The estimated ARIMA(1,1,1) model clarified that although the low growth of world share of US SDR is very low but it is stationary. But it has no unit root.

The ARIMA model is shown here,

Logx_t = 3.2950 +0.779 logx_t-1 +_t – 0.0445_t-1

            (186.33)*  ( 5.346)*          (-0.205)

R²= 0.54  , F= 22.89*   ,DW = 1.915  , Inverted AR root= 0.78 and inverted MA root = 0.04 where *= significant at 5% level. Xt is the world share of SDR of USA.

In the figure it is shown as green line and the red line is the logx and blue line is the residual.

The ratio of the world share of gold and SDR of USA  is also decreasing  at the rate of 0.58% per year during the study period 1971-2013.This is shown by the following estimated line.

Log(y) = 0.0699-0.0058t

                (0.671)  (-1.426)

R²= 0.047  , DW= 0.23  , F= 2.053

All the t values, F value are insignificant and even the DW and R² are very low where y= ratio of world share of gold and SDR of USA. So the importance of SDR of USA with respect to gold is very insignificant to meet international liquidity.