CO2: from a pollutant emission to a trading commodity
30 Nov 2022
Human activities emit over 30 billion tons of CO2 per year: how can we turn CO2 into a trading commodity?
The profile as a pollutant emission
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a chemical compound occurring as an acidic, colorless gas, with a density about 53% higher than that of dry air. It occurs naturally in Earth's atmosphere, as a trace gas, having a global average concentration of 415 ppm by volume, as of the end of year 2020, having risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm (Eggleton T., 2013).
It is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's carbon, though human activities are altering the carbon cycle, both by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere and by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests and soils, to remove it from the atmosphere.
The main source, that adds carbon dioxide, is the relentless exploitation of carbon-based fuels of all states (coal, oil, natural gas), which are used for public transportation, electricity generation, cement production and steelmaking process.
At the same time, activities like deforestation and burning of biomass, significantly reduce the Earth’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
It is also worth noting that just the processes of extracting and burning fossil fuels are responsible for the increase of the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, by about 50%, in the timespan starting from the Industrial Age, up until 2020 (Friedlingstein P, Jones MW, O'sullivan M, Andrew RM, Hauck J, Peters GP, et al., 2019).
However, significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, are also released from natural sources, such as the volcanoes, vastly extended forest fires, geothermal springs, and carbonate rocks, such as limestone and dolostone.
Nevertheless, just to make a comparison, human activities emit over 30 billion tons of CO2 per year, while volcanoes emit only between 0.2 and 0.3 billion tons (Global Warming FAQ, 2017).
And while, carbon dioxide is necessary for the survival of life on earth, as plants need it for photosynthesis and both humans and animals depend on plants for food, it is also the most significant long-lasting greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
As previously mentioned, since the Industrial Revolution, human actions, primarily the use of fossil fuels and the extended deforestation, have rapidly increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, leading to global warming and another serious issue, the acidification of the oceans; the higher its concentration in the atmosphere, the more carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and as a result, the pH of sea water has decreased by 0.1 in the last 200 years, meaning 30% more acid (NOAA, 2020) . It must be mentioned, that about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels, remains in the atmosphere, and is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans (Buis A., Ramsayer K., Rasmussen C.,2015).
