How Much is ONE Tonne of CO2?
You cannot see it, smell it and touch it. Yet, it is featured in the news all the time, and its cumulation effect affects billions worldwide.
Do you know how much activity would contribute to one tonne of carbon dioxide?
One Tonne of CO2 is 434 litres of petrol combusted
For Singapore roads, the national average distance per day is about 55 kilometres, which amounts to 20,000 kilometres per year. If the vehicle reached its 10-years of age, the average count should be within 200,000 kilometres. (Morotist Sg)
It means that on average, each car would produce 3.84 tonnes of CO2 every year. We have 1 million car population in Singapore, and 1.446 billion vehicles. Do the maths yourself.
Emission factors for Fuel
- kg CO2 / litre
- Diesel 2.67
- Petrol 2.28
- CNG 2.00
- LPG 1.66
One Tonne of CO2 is 2460kWh, or electricity used by two households in Singapore
The average monthly consumption for electricity was 1,257 kWh, 568.8 kWh, and 375.9 kWh in 2020 for households living in (i) landed properties, (ii) private condominiums, and (iii) HDB flats respectively.
Using an average of 600kWh per household, roughly two household will create 1 tonne of CO2 every month.
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Since 2000, Singapore has shifted away from less efficient fossil fuels and in turn increased the percentage of natural gas used in electricity generation from 19% to more than 95% today.
Natural gas will continue to be an important fuel for Singapore in the near future as we scale up our other switches. We will continue working with the industry to improve the energy and carbon efficiency of natural gas generation units during this transition.
Among all fossil fuels, natural gas produces the least amount of carbon emissions per unit of electricity. Singapore’s fuel mix allows our emission to be much less carbon intensive than other nations that still use coal as an important part of their power generation. Singapore’s Grid Emission Factor — a measure of the carbon intensity of electricity generation — has fallen from 0.4237 kgCO2/kWh in 2016 to 0.4057 kgCO2/kWh in 2021.
Source: NCCS
One Tonne of CO2 is Approximately 1 tonne of solid waste thrown away
Each tonne of MSW incinerated typically releases between 0.7 and 1.7 tonnes of CO2. This includes emissions of both fossil CO2 (e.g. from burning plastics) and biogenic CO2 (e.g. from burning wood, paper and food)
Source: Zerowasteeurope