Student Worksheet

Thought starters: Have you thought about what the carbon emission might be for sending a text message?

Critical Choices in the Critical Decade https://vimeo.com/79266486

Lots of the things we take for granted everyday produce CO₂- even sending a text massage has a carbon footprint. For this reason a Global Carbon Budget has been established. Scientists have estimated that we can emit no more than 1,000 billion tonnes of CO₂ between 2000 and 2050. This will ensure our global temperature does not increase by 2⁰C, which is the threshold we should not cross. This means from 2000-2050 we have a budget of no more than 1,000 billion tonnes of CO₂. Given that we have spent 40% of this budget in the just 13 years, we have 60% to go… but it has to last 37 years! In 2013 we are on track to BLOW our budget by 2028 - but there are many things we can do to stop this.

Using the information you have on the carbon budget answer the following questions:
Note: write your answers to the nearest whole number and show your workings.

Question 1

a. How many billion tonnes of CO₂ were emitted between 2000 and 2013?

b. i) Calculate the average rate of emissions per year for 2000-2013?

ii) Express this as a percentage of the total allowance in the budget.

c. i) What will Australia's total emission be in 2025 if emission remain at the same rate as 2000-2013?

ii) Express this as a percentage of the total carbon budget.

d. How many billions tonnes could be emitted, on average, per year for Australia to remain on budget?

e. If we continue to emit carbon at a rate of 31 billions tonnes per year how many years will it take to blow the budget?

Scientists have predicted we will blow our budget in 2028. This is because rather than reducing our emission every year we are actually increasing by 2.6%!

We have calculated that the average rate of emissions has been 31 billion tonnes per year between 2000 and 2013.

Question 2

Rule:

Percentage Change = (change/original value) x 100

Where the change is the new value subtract old value. If the answer is positive there has been an increase, negative is a decrease.

a. If the scientist predictions are true and we do blow the budget by 2028 calculate the average rate of emissions over the 28 years.

b. Calculate the predicted rate of emissions per year for 2014-2028.

c. What is the percentage increase in emission for this period of time compared with the first 13 years?

d. i) Calculate the change in emission if we were able to reduce emissions by 12%.

ii) Even with a 12% decrease in emissions our emission would be:

e. If we were to take the full 50 years to reach 1,000 billion tonnes of emission, calculate the percentage decrease needed for Australia to not blow the budget?

f. What can you do to reduce your carbon emissions by 50%?

Extension

It is 2013 and you have been given the task of creating a plan for the next 37 years to reduce our carbon emission to zero by 2050.

Complete the table below to help with you planning then write a short report detailing your plan.
Your only requirement is don’t BLOW the budget.

(Note: be careful with the units)

Report:

Resources

Cool Australia Climate Change Toolbox

Percentages and the Carbon Budget

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