“Emissions” in Daybreak refers to human activities that release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution began, human activities like burning fuel in cookers and cars have added increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other ‘greenhouse’ gasses into the atmosphere. These gasses trap heat in the atmosphere and lead to the destabilizing effects of climate change.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is by far the most significant greenhouse gas and has caused nearly two thirds of warming. Methane (CH4) has caused about a third of warming, but methane emissions will play a large role in determining the peak warming we experience, because its warming power is over a short period. Nitrous Oxide (N2O) mostly comes from agriculture and has caused about 5% of warming. Other greenhouse gasses include hydrofluorocarbons and chemicals used in refrigeration systems.

About two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions are from burning fossil fuels for some form of energy (transportation, heat, or electricity), with one-third from the extraction of fossil fuels, agriculture, and industrial processes.

Dirty energy, usually generated by burning fossil fuels, is responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving the climate crisis. Together, burning fossil fuels for electrical and non-electrical energy (think gas for home-heating, transport and industry) accounted for 82% of the world’s carbon emissions in 2022, according to The Energy Institute.

As the term implies, dirty electricity sources also tend to emit other non-greenhouse gas pollutants that are bad for human health. For example, coal kills more than half a million people worldwide each year from direct pollution, before its climate impact. 

Methane (also known as ‘natural gas’) emits less CO2 and other pollutants than coal when burnt to generate electricity, but it still has a devastating impact, especially as dirty gas use has grown in recent decades. Given that methane is itself a greenhouse gas, leaks during the extraction process also contribute to its catastrophic climate impact. Smaller sources of dirty electricity include oil, ‘gray’ hydrogen, and unsustainable biomass.

Dirty energy generators require costly fuels to run, which generally causes them to be more expensive than clean sources such as wind, or solar. Dirty energy also leaves dependent nations especially vulnerable to energy crises when the supply of these fossil fuels is threatened.

Industry, including factories, treatment plants and other processing facilities, produces the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings we live and work in, the vehicles we travel in and the products we use every day. 

But many of these processes release greenhouse gas emissions. In some cases, such as cement manufacturing, greenhouse gas emissions are chemical byproducts of production processes, so we need to work out new ways to produce these materials - or to stop using them. In other cases, greenhouse gasses are released when fossil fuels are burned, for example in furnaces to produce heat or through electrical systems to provide light in production facilities. 

In these cases, we need to reduce the amount of energy we use, perhaps by buying and making less of the thing being produced, and shift production systems to renewable energy sources.

Transportation is the process of moving people or things from one place to another. 

Historically transportation relied on the power of muscles – human or animal. Since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels have taken over. Aircraft, ships, trucks, cars, and other forms of transportation are responsible for more than 10% of humanity’s total greenhouse gas emissions footprint. They also contribute to many other problems, from habitat loss to health harm - due to the air-polluting byproducts of burning diesel and petrol. 

We can reduce the harmful impacts of our transportation system by only using powered transport when we need it, sharing our transportation systems through public transport, walking and cycling whenever possible, and switching to efficient and renewably-powered engines.

Farming is an indispensable source of food, income and livelihood around the world. 

Farming is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Practices like cutting down trees, overusing fertilizer, and raising cattle make the climate emergency worse, by getting rid of ecosystems that absorb greenhouse gas emissions, polluting natural areas and creating greenhouse gas emissions. 

Regenerative agricultural practices, such as ecologically-safe fertilizers, careful management of soils and less livestock farming can reduce the damaging impacts of agriculture on the Earth’s climate and improve the well-being of humans and ecosystems.

Buildings are meant to provide safe, comfortable environmental conditions for our everyday activities. 

But constructing, operating, and demolishing buildings generates greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gasses are emitted when we produce, treat and transport bricks, steel and cement, for example. We also use energy in gas boilers or electricity to heat and light our homes. 

Buildings should last centuries, so the impact of their design and construction can stretch beyond the owner or occupant’s lifetime. Properly maintaining and upgrading buildings so they can be used for a long time is important to reduce the demand for new materials for construction. Using only the energy we need, from renewable energy sources, will help eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their operation.

All three fossil fuels – coal, oil, and fossil gas (also known as “natural” gas, which is primarily methane) – are found underground and accessed by mining or drilling. 

But oil wells and coal mines may not strike only oil. Often there is water in some part of the rock, or other gasses. One of those gasses is methane, which can end up leaking in the extraction and distribution process – and methane is dozens of times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Even when oil or coal are being extracted, smaller non-commercial amounts of methane are often found and end up leaking into the atmosphere. 

Altogether, fossil fuel extraction and methane distribution is one of the largest sources of methane emissions and a huge contributor to global heating.

Ridding ourselves of materials we no longer have a use for, whether household goods, old roads, rotten food, or wastewater, produces greenhouse gas emissions. Transporting waste typically uses fossil fuels and generates carbon dioxide. As waste decomposes in landfills, it produces methane, another potent greenhouse gas. Transporting and treating wastewater produces greenhouse gasses as well. 

We can reduce waste by not buying things we don’t need, preferentially buying products that last a long time, using the things we do buy to the full extent of their capacity, and not sending excess water into wastewater treatment systems. We can also put pressure on governments to regulate wasteful production practices such as planned obsolescence.