CLIENT

Environmental Protection Agency

PURPOSE

To help the EPA inform a range of audiences, from policymakers to the general public, about Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions.

DESCRIPTION

A short animation showing Ireland’s daily emissions as a large pile of one tonne carbon dioxide bubbles beside the Poolbeg towers in Dublin bay.

How do you show the carbon footprint of a country? That was the task set by Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA compiles Ireland's annual greenhouse gas emission inventories and projections, which allows the Government to assess progress against key targets, report to the European Commission and UNFCCC and informs policy development and mitigation measures. The EPA also aims to provide up-to-date scientific information to a wide range of audiences, from policymakers to the general public. A simple visual would help to get more people engaged in the issue.

Carbon Visuals created a short animation showing the daily emissions as a large pile of one tonne carbon dioxide bubbles - sitting next to the Poolbeg towers in Dublin bay.

See the EPA webpage here.

TECHNICAL NOTE

The data source for this visualisation is the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory for 2012 which calculates annual emissions from Agriculture, Energy, Transport, Industry and commercial, Residential and Waste sectors, and was released in 2014.

Each sphere represents one tonne of greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide equivalent - Co2(e). Greenhouse gases other than CO2 (i.e. methane, nitrous oxide and so-called F-gases) may be converted to CO2 equivalent using their global warming potentials.

For 2012, Ireland’s total national greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be 58,531,238 tonnes or 160,359 tonnes per day.

Carbon dioxide gas at 15 °C and standard pressure has a density of 1.87 kg/m3. At standard pressure and 15 °C a metric ton of carbon dioxide gas would fill a sphere approximately 10 metres across. The video shows a pile of 160,359 spheres 10 metres in diameter located near the Poolbeg Towers in Dublin Bay, with the city behind.