Balance of carbon dioxide emissions
Taking account of the total energy consumption in Stuttgart (14,900 GWh per year), about 3.2 million tons of carbon dioxide are emitted every year. With about 5.7 tons of carbon dioxide per year and inhabitant, the specific value lies about 47 % below the national average and about 21 % below the average of Baden-Württemberg.
The main reason for the relatively low specific value of carbon dioxide emissions in Stuttgart can be found in the conversion sector. Due to the very high percentage of nuclear energy (currently about 90 %), power generation contributes with only about 11 % to the total carbon dioxide emissions, even if power generation has a share of about 25 % in the total final energy consumption in Stuttgart.
After the nuclear power station Neckarwestheim 2 had been started up in 1989, the share of nuclear energy in the total power generation was raised continuously. This is why the carbon dioxide emissions of the conversion sector were halved during the last 10 years despite of an increasing power output.
The facts that the carbonic fuels oil and coal were more and more replaced by natural gas, district heating and electricity and that the energy consumption in traffic has dropped since 1990 led to a decline of about 7 % in carbon dioxide emissions, although the total final energy consumption in Stuttgart has more or less remained steady in this period.
When the total carbon dioxide emissions are split up according to the consumption purpose, they can be divided into:
- Room heat (heating and water heating) 58 %
- Traffic 27 %
- Power / light 9 %
- Process heat in industry 6 %
Besides the traffic sector, heating is the main source of carbon dioxide emissions in Stuttgart, while industry contributes relatively little to the emissions due to its few process heat consumers. This sector has experienced a 40 % decline in carbon dioxide emissions as a result of the cyclical drop in energy consumption and the total substitution of coal during the last 5 years.
When carbon dioxide emissions are split up according to the fields of consumers, they can be divided into:
- Trade and others 29 %
- Traffic 28 %
- Households 28 %
- Industry 12 %
- City of Stuttgart 3 %
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Carbon dioxide emissions from the total final energy consumption in Stuttgart in 1990 and 1995
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The 280,000 private households alone contribute to Stuttgart’s carbon dioxide emissions with about 900,000 tons per year (28 %). In this sector, like in the sector of trade as well as national and city institutions, the main source of total final energy consumption is room heating.
This leads to the conclusion that the sectors of room heating and traffic have to be the starting points for the intended reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in Stuttgart.
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| © City of Stuttgart, Office for Environmental Protection, Section of Urban Climatology |
