Emissions reduction at the Netherlands ministry of defence: potential, possibilities and impact

To limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C in 2100 compared to mid nineteenth century, net post 2015 emissions should amount maximum 200 Gigaton Carbon (GTC) or 734 GT CO2 emissions [Millar, 2017]. Annual world CO2 emission rate was 36.2GT, and CO2_eq (the combined impact of all emissions on global warming, translated to the equivalent impact of CO2 emissions) emission rate was 49 GT in 2016, [Carbonatlas, 2017]. Currently only 685 GT CO2 emission quota is left, or 14 years of emitting at the current emission rate. Estimates vary widely: IPCC thinks we only have 485 GT CO2 emission quota left, while the most pessimistic estimates talk about only 200 GT CO2. With this in mind, the ambition of the Dutch Operational Energy Strategy [Schulten 2017] to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels (and hence CO2 emissions) by 20 % in 2030, is not sufficient to meet the objectives of the Treaty of Paris. We have to choose whether to keep this ambition, defining much stricter ambitions, or invest differently to keep global warming within acceptable limits. This paper discusses CO2 emissions and their distribution both over different sectors and geographical, worldwide. Next the paper discusses the options we have on short and medium term to reduce emissions, and their impact on emission reduction