In the second episode of Gower's Climate Mirror, the world's dirtiest pollution source has been replaced? Among the major carbon emitters named in 2022, who has improved? Who's worse off?
Climate TRACE is currently the world's most detailed independent global greenhouse gas emissions database. Among the 500 dirtiest carbon emission sources in the world in 2022, 7 are from Taiwan. Image source: Cut from Climate TRACE official website
Do you still remember that at COP27 last year, former US Vice President Al Gore turned on the climate mirror "Climate TRACE"?
It integrates data from satellites, remote sensing and other public and commercial data, and uses AI to calculate the carbon emissions of the world's 72,612 dirtiest power plants, refineries, oil fields, steel plants, cement plants, airports and other 20 major industries. Spread out on a world map, it claims to be the most detailed independent global greenhouse gas emissions database available.
Gall is back in 2023. This time it was even more violent. The number of pollution sources exposed exploded from more than 70,000 to 352 million, an annual increase of 4,400 times. It included cities, fishing ports, road traffic, rice fields, field burning, etc., and the time span of national-level carbon emission data was It has also been extended to 2015.
The closest to the real global carbon emissions database
"It's really powerful," Gall said. “We are participating in this COP specifically for this year’s global stocktake,” he noted. “Climate Tracker is currently the only independent, comprehensive source of accurate data that can be used to take stocktakes.”
In fact, Climate TRACE will also “verify” and “catch” each country’s carbon emissions data.
Climate Tracker told Science that in 2021, Russia underreported about 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, while the United States underreported 400 million tons, mostly carbon emissions from oil and gas operations. They estimate that rich countries failed to report carbon emissions to the United Nations that year as high as 3 billion tons, accounting for 5% of total global emissions. Climate Tracker also found that the United Arab Emirates, the host country of COP28, also underreported more than 100 million tons of carbon emissions in its latest report in 2019.
Returning to the latest data, Climate Tracker found that global emissions increased by 1.5% from 2021 to 2022. If calculated from the year the Paris Agreement was signed, global emissions increased by 8.6% in 7 years.
In addition, aviation emissions rebounded strongly. Carbon emissions from international flights increased by 74%, domestic flights increased by 18%, and road traffic emissions also increased by 3.5%. The only good news is that deforestation is declining in key areas.
How is Taiwan doing this year?
Taiwan's overall carbon emissions decreased by 800,000 tons in 2022, a decrease of 2.4%, but the top ten carbon emissions are still "among the best" in the world. As a small country, Taiwan accounts for 7 of the 500 dirtiest carbon emission sources in the world, which is equivalent to 1.4 of every 100 major carbon emitters in Taiwan.
Among the top ten polluting facilities in Taiwan, the top three remain unchanged. Strangely, although their carbon emissions have all dropped, their global rankings have all moved up.
Taichung Thermal Power Plant still ranks first. Although carbon emissions have decreased by 900,000 tons (-2.6%) compared with last year, the global carbon pollution ranking has moved up 6 places, jumping from 34th last year to 28th, refreshing Taiwan. A new high, with carbon emissions of 32.7 million tons, higher than Lebanon’s national carbon emissions.
Mailiao Power Plant continues to rank second in Taiwan, rising 7 places in the global ranking, from 62nd to 55th. Its carbon emissions are higher than Croatia's national carbon emissions, reaching 24.88 million tons, but compared with last year A decrease of 670,000 tons (-2.6%).
Xingda Power Plant maintained its third place in Taiwan and moved up 14 places globally to 140th. Its carbon emissions decreased by 300,000 tons (-1.8%) to a total of 16.73 million tons, which is close to the national carbon emissions of Costa Rica.
The Taichung plant of Zhonglong Steel has the largest "increase" in the global ranking. This year it advanced from outside the list to the 10th place in Taiwan. The global carbon pollution ranking has also shot up from 1,212th to 840th, rising 372 places. It has "regressed" the most.
Formosa Plastics Mailiao Plant reduces carbon emissions by nearly 20% annually
The largest "drop" in the global ranking is the Formosa Petrochemical Mailiao plant. This year it fell out of the top ten in Taiwan. The global carbon pollution ranking dropped from 1011th to 1439th, a drop of 428 places. It has the greatest "improvement".
In addition to Formosa Plastics' Mailiao plant, there are two other companies ranked "progressing" globally, namely China Steel Structure's Kaohsiung plant and Heping Power Plant.
China Steel Structure's Kaohsiung plant fell two places this year, from fourth to sixth in Taiwan last year. It fell out of the top 200 globally and ranked 250th. It reduced 2.32 million tons of carbon, a reduction of 15.3%! The ranking of Heping Power Plant in Taiwan remained the same, but the global ranking fell by 23 places, from 652nd to 675th, with a carbon reduction of 210,000 tons, a decrease of 2.6%.
If you don’t look at the rankings and only look at the carbon emissions, most of them have achieved success in reducing emissions. Among them, the Formosa Petrochemical Mailiao Plant won the carbon reduction king last year, reducing 121 tons of carbon, a reduction of 19.9%.
However, the carbon emissions of three companies increased, namely Taitan Power Plant (+2.7%), Tongxiao Power Plant (+1.3%) and Zhonglong Steel Taichung Plant (+21.8%). The largest increase was Zhonglong Steel Taichung Plant. Carbon emissions increased from 5.54 million tons last year to 6.75 million tons, an increase of 21.8%.
There are still differences between international data and local data in Taiwan
However, according to statistics from the "Business Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information Platform" organized by the Ministry of Environment, among Taiwan's top ten pollution sources in 2022, the one with the largest carbon reduction will be Sinosteel's annual carbon reduction of 12%, followed by the Formosa Plastics Mailiao No. 1 Plant. 8%; Taipower Xingda Power Plant and Linkou Power Plant saw the largest increases in emissions, with annual increases in emissions exceeding 4%. The overall top ten industrial emission sources, with annual emissions exceeding 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), increased to 8. The new one to enter the 10 million metric tons emission list is Taipower Tongxiao Power Plant.
Data is the cornerstone of practice. Only with accurate data can we truly take stock and hold ourselves accountable. Gall hopes that one day climate tracking will be integrated into the United Nations to do a truly global inventory.
Taiwan’s carbon emission pollution map in the past two years
The industrial attributes are distinguished by color. From top to bottom, red is agriculture, light blue is construction, gray is fluorinated gas, orange is fossil fuel operations, dark green is forest and land use, purple is manufacturing, dark blue is mining, and blue-green for power generation, orange for transportation, and finally light green for waste.
Ranking of Taiwan's top ten polluting facilities in 2022: 8 power plants and two steel plants
In 2022, 7 major polluting facilities in Taiwan will enter the Global 500 ranking
Highlights from the Climate Tracker 2023 report
Global emissions will continue to increase in 2022: from 2021 to 2022, global emissions increased by 1.5%, and from 2015, the year the Paris Agreement was signed, to 2022, by 8.6%.
China, India and the United States have seen the largest increases in emissions: Since 2015, the largest increases in global emissions have come from electricity production and other energy use in China, electricity production in India, and oil and natural gas production in the United States. Increases in emissions from a handful of sectors in these three countries account for nearly half of the increase in global emissions since 2015. Changes in emissions from oil and gas production in the United States and Iran and electricity generation in India account for 17% of global emissions growth in 2022.
Methane rising: In the year after the global methane pledge was announced, methane emissions increased by 1.8%. China's growing methane emissions will account for an increase of 39% in 2022, with China's coal mining sector accounting for most of the growth.
Oil and Gas Footprint: Off-gas combustion towers are an important and widespread source of emissions for the oil and gas industry, accounting for 15% of CO2 from global oil and gas production.
Some countries, such as the Netherlands, Norway, Israel and Colombia, are at low levels (<1% to 2%); others, such as Algeria, Iraq, Mexico and Russia, are at high levels (20% to >40%). Cutting back on combustion reduces carbon dioxide as well as unburned methane from the combustion process.
Deforestation rates decline in key regions: While global emissions from deforestation remain high (4.5 Gt CO2e), increasing slightly in 2022 (+51 TP3T), some key regions have already declined significantly.
In Indonesia, emissions from deforestation and degradation fell by 56% and 87% respectively from 2015 to 2022.
In the Congo Basin, emissions from deforestation and degradation fell by 7% and 19% in 2022 compared with 2021.
Road transport emissions increase in rich countries: Road transport emissions will increase by 3.5% in 2022. Despite the increasing number of electric vehicles, high-income and lower-middle-income countries accounted for 68% of total emissions growth. 49% of all emissions from road transport in 2022 will come from rich countries.
Aviation industry emissions hit new highs: In 2022, the rebound in travel after the COVID-19 epidemic has led to a surge in aviation emissions. In 2022, total emissions from international flights will increase by 74% annually, and domestic flights will increase by 18%.
Shipping impacts the Arctic: As Arctic sea ice decreases, shipping traffic in the region increases. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of weeks CO2 emissions from Arctic ships exceeded 30,000 tons doubled.
Petrochemicals are playing a growing role: Ethylene production (via steam cracking) is included in climate trackers for the first time, and its greenhouse gas emissions have surged by 22% since 2015.
** This article is reprinted with permission from "CSR@天下", the original title is "Upgraded Climate Mirror!" The United Arab Emirates failed to report 100 million tons of carbon emissions, Zhonglong Steel ranked among the top ten pollution sources in Taiwan, and the Formosa Plastics Mailiao plant improved the most｜COP28 Midfield Battle>. CC co-creation licensing terms do not apply.
Source: Environmental Information Center
