Lesson video

This lesson is called Reducing Emissions from Industry and is from the unit climate change in greenhouse gases.

Hi there, My name's Mrs. McCready and I'm here to guide you through today's lesson.

So thank you very much for joining me today.

In our lesson today, we're going to identify the biggest producers of greenhouse gases, and we'll have a look at what changes they could make to reduce their emissions.

So in our lesson today, we're gonna come across a number of keywords and they're listed up here on the screen for you now.

You may wish to pause the video to make a note of them, but I will introduce them to you as we come across them.

So in our lesson today, we are going to first of all have a look at the industrial greenhouse gas emissions and where they're coming from.

Then we're gonna look at the carbon capture industry and see how carbon capture and storage can help tackle this problem, before we consider the impact of the energy industry.

So are you ready to go? I certainly am, let's get started.

So let's start off with some good news.

Between 1990 and 2023, greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, fell by 53%.

That's a really quite significant reduction.

Now, greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour.

So our overall production of these emissions here in the UK, fell by just over half, in a 30 year period between 1990 and 2023.

In the same period of time, greenhouse gas emissions from supplying electricity to the UK, fell by 78%.

As we started to transition across to renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar.

So these are two great pieces of news, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from UK processes.

Now what that means is that transport is now the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the UK.

And you can see there, in that sector montage, the domestic transport section being the largest of them all, at 29%.

So this is the emissions that are produced when we are driving cars and lorries, buses, vans, and when we are taking transport like trains to move around the UK.

So that's our domestic transport, which means that the next largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions from UK sources, is from buildings at 20%.

And this relates to the amount of energy that it takes to either heat buildings up in winter or to cool them down in summer.

So all that heating and cooling requires energy and is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, here in the UK.

So that means that the third largest contributor to greenhouse gases, in the UK is industry.

And we'll look at what industry means in a moment.

But before we do, it's worth pointing out that the fuel supply section is only 8%, and it's worth clarifying that this is all about the extraction and refinement of fuels.

So how we take fuels like oil and gas out of the ground and then process them for further use.

And all of that production and refinement requires energy as well.

And that's what's bundled up in the fuel supply section, which is only 8%.

But what we actually then go on to use those fuels for, whether it be for transport or for heating or cooling our buildings or for use in industry is not included within the fuel supply section.

Those emissions are accounted for within their own sectors, such as the transport, the buildings, and the industry sections.

So which sectors produce more greenhouse gas emissions than industry? Agriculture? Buildings? Domestic transport? Or electricity supply? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Okay, so you should have said that the sectors that produce more greenhouse gas emissions than industry are the buildings and the domestic transport sectors.

Well done if you selected both of those.

Now, what does industry involve? Well, industry is all of the businesses that make or produce products to sell.

And actually we make quite a lot of different things here in the UK and some very specialised products as part of that.

So some of the most important UK industries include, those which are involved in producing foods of various different forms, from chocolates and chocolate biscuits all the way up to ready meals and freezer foods.

The aerospace industry, which is not just involving making planes and plane parts, but also includes an ever increasing section about space exploration as well, which is very exciting actually, lots of jobs in that sector.

It also includes pharmaceuticals.

So this is about making medicinal drugs and researching medicinal drugs, making sure that they're safe to use before they're used on us for real.

And this is a huge industry within the UK.

We have a great level of specialism within the UK for researching and for production of specialist pharmaceutical drugs.

The automotive industry, so this is about making cars and parts for cars.

And again, this has some really specialist and very well established factories and car manufacturing plants, across the UK.

And the chemical industry, which is about making all sorts of different things from paints to fertilisers.

So we have this great range of important UK industries which all contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in the industry sector from the UK.

Now, most greenhouse gas emissions from UK industry are of carbon dioxide gas.

So I said greenhouse gases, include carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour, while most of those emissions are of carbon dioxide gas.

And this is because a lot of the time, fuels are being burnt, which contain carbon and therefore carbon is being released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide.

Now, UK industry has invested quite significantly in various different pieces of technology to remove various pollutants from the emissions being released from their factories.

But often these are to do with the other pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and other emissions and not of carbon dioxide.

And so that means that carbon dioxide is by far the greatest greenhouse gas emissions because it's not extracted regularly from the emissions being released.

Now, implementing any of that equipment to clean up the emissions before they get out into the atmosphere is expensive and it costs a lot of money and time to create the technology to be able to do that in the first place.

However, the UK government has over successive decades implemented laws and regulations to ensure that these processes are implemented to clean up the emissions from various different sectors, including the UK industry sector.

Now, the steel industry in the UK is still quite a significant industry and it is responsible for about 5% of all of the carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and about 7% overall worldwide.

And that's because the traditional methods of making steel, produce huge amounts of carbon dioxide emissions.

However, there is quite a lot of research going on to improving that, to reducing the number of emissions being made when steel is being produced.

And these new ways of making steel will, and are reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a result.

So how can greenhouse gas emissions from industry be reduced? A, by developing new processes that produce fewer emissions? B, by using equipment to remove greenhouse gases from emissions? or C, by manufacturing what we need overseas? I'll give you five seconds to think about it.

Okay, so we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry by developing new processes that produce fewer emissions and using equipment to remove greenhouse gases from emissions.

But simply sending our manufacturing overseas is not actually reducing emissions, and in fact, may well cause emissions to increase, if the other countries don't have the same regulations that the UK does.

Well done if you chose both the first two options though.

So let's summarise this first part of the lesson.

What do you think about these statements on greenhouse gas emissions from industry? Are you sure they're correct? Do you think they're correct? Do you think they are incorrect or are you sure they're incorrect? So read the statements carefully and make your decisions.

Pause the video and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, let's review your work.

So the first statement, most greenhouse gas emissions are from industry is incorrect because that is certainly not the case.

Laws can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry is correct.

And all new industrial processes produce fewer emissions, is incorrect.

Did you get all three statements correct? Well done indeed if you did.

Okay, let's move on to looking at carbon capture and storage.

So we've seen how, most of the greenhouse gases which are released in industry are of carbon dioxide.

And we've also seen how many of the other pollutants that are also made during industrial processes aren't released into the atmosphere because they are captured and processed.

Now, carbon dioxide could also be removed from the emissions of greenhouse gases, but for the large part, they currently aren't.

Which asks the question then, why not? Well, removing carbon dioxide from the emissions is a good thing because this lowers the emissions of greenhouse gases and it therefore will help to slow global warming because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which is contributing to global warming.

However, removing carbon dioxide is extremely expensive to do because there is a lot of it and it's a very difficult molecule to capture.

As it is a very expensive process, this will cause the prices of the things that are being manufactured, to go up, and that will mean that lots of different things will be more expensive.

From cars to medicines, from flight to food, all of these different things will become more expensive.

Now if we raise the prices of our products because it's costing more in order to manufacture them because of carbon capture.

This means that it could make the UK prices and the UK industry, uncompetitive.

Where other products from other countries are cheaper and therefore more affordable and therefore more likely to be bought even if they are transported much further around the world to get to us.

So you can see that removing carbon dioxide from the emissions in industry is both a good thing, but has its drawbacks too.

So if the UK industry invested in removing carbon dioxide from the emissions, it would increase their costs.

This is an expensive thing to do.

However, they could be forced to do it.

The government could pass laws that make them do it.

But as I've said, if that were to happen, what would those companies do? Would they carry on producing those goods here in the UK? Or would they move their business overseas to countries where they don't have to carbon capture and therefore can produce their goods at a cheaper cost and therefore, make more money by selling them at the same price here in the UK? Or by keeping their prices the same and therefore being more competitive? So it's a complex picture here and it's a very difficult decision to make because what is morally right is not necessarily competitively right.

Now that would be a different picture entirely if all of the countries in the world got together and agreed to take the same actions to tackle climate change.

So if every single government in the whole world said, "All industry must capture carbon "and you've got until 2030, in which to do it." Then it wouldn't matter where in the world you would be, it would cost the same to implement that technology regardless.

And so you wouldn't be less competitive in one country and more competitive in another, you would be equally competitive everywhere.

That's one way of achieving this, and that's not quite as farfetched as it might seem because the United Nations organises a conference every year to support these kinds of agreements.

And you may well have heard of them because they are always big news.

They're an enormous event, which is incredibly important, and it is called COP, the Climate Change Conference.

So in 2024, COP29 happened, and maybe you heard some of the headlines that came out of this, or maybe you were involved in activities in school about COP29.

And in this climate change conference, lots of agreements were made by many different countries around the world.

Virtually every single country in the world, attended COP29.

And so these global agreements were able to be made at least on some issues.

So, international agreements can help the UK tackle climate change more effectively.

True or false? So you should have said that that is true, and that is true, because international agreements can allow the UK to take action even if it makes some industries less competitive.

And this is because similar industries in other countries will be affected in the same way, and so everyone becomes as uncompetitive as each other, at the same time.

Well done if you got that correct.

Now, carbon capture and storage, as we've said, is an expensive business.

However, it is worth the investment because what it will do, is prevent a large portion of carbon dioxide emissions from getting into the atmosphere in the first place.

And if we can stop carbon dioxide from being put into the atmosphere originally, then we will be able to make a significant impact on our attempt to tackle climate change.

So what is carbon capture and storage? How does this process work? Well, the first thing is that the carbon dioxide being released by industry has to be separated out, from the other emissions.

Now, some of those other emissions are already being captured and processed separately.

And then other emissions include water vapour, and that is largely what we can see.

Most of the emissions that are being produced are invisible.

We can't see them at all.

But water vapour when it condenses into liquid droplets is visible, like clouds are visible, and that is what we can see coming out of industry chimneys.

So we'd need to separate the carbon dioxide out from the other pollutants and from the water vapour present in that cloud.

The next thing that would need to happen is for carbon dioxide gas to be compressed.

That means squashed together, all those particles pushed closer and closer together until they turn into a liquid.

So they turn from being a gas to being a liquid.

And we've got examples of that.

You will have examples of liquid carbon dioxide around your school in red fire extinguishers with a black label on it.

These are carbon dioxide cylinders, so they're filled with liquid carbon dioxide, and when they're used, the liquid turns back into gas because of the change of pressure.

So that really high pressure inside the cylinder and a much lower pressure when they're in the atmosphere once they've been released.

So as with the carbon dioxide in a fire extinguisher, the carbon dioxide that has been extracted from the emissions in industry would need to be compressed into its liquid state.

Then, once that has happened and we have liquid carbon dioxide, it can be stored somewhere and often deep underground, perhaps back where the carbon came from in the first place in old oil and gas reservoirs.

So this is the process of carbon capture and storage.

First of all, it has to be captured from the emissions being released by industry.

Then it has to be compressed into a liquid, and then it has to be stored somewhere often deep underground.

So which steps are necessary for carbon capture and storage? Compression? Condensation? Injection? And separation? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Okay, so you should have said that compression, injection and separation are the three steps necessary for carbon capture and storage, but not in that order.

We have to separate them first, then compress them before injecting them.

Well done if you spotted that and extra well done if you managed to order them into the correct process.

Good work.

Okay, let's summarise carbon capture and storage.

So what I'd like you to do is to order these sentences to describe how carbon capture and storage works.

So put them in the correct order, pause the video and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, let's see if you've got these in the correct order.

So you should have started off with statement C.

Carbon dioxide is produced by an industrial process.

Then E, carbon dioxide is separated from other emissions.

D, carbon dioxide is squashed into a liquid.

A, carbon dioxide is pumped into an old oil or gas reservoir.

And then B, carbon dioxide is stored deep underground.

Well done if you got them all in the correct order.

Okay, let's move on to the last section of our lesson looking at the energy industry.

So the energy industry generates electricity and provides fuels to burn such as petrol and diesel, and also things like butane and propane.

So these are all types of fuels that can be burnt in various different types of engines or boilers.

Now the energy industry is only partly included within this montage of different sectors because the fuels are often used in other sectors.

So whilst they're being supplied by the energy industry, they're not being used by the energy industry.

They might be being used by buildings or by transport, by agriculture, et cetera.

So I've said that the energy industry is only partly represented, and I've given a couple of examples of that, but let's look at that in a little bit more detail.

Because the energy industry contributes greenhouse gas emissions through lots of different other sector processes, including the transports section where petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and so on are used to help move us around and move our goods around.

It also provides natural gas for heating buildings and also for cooking.

And you may well have a gas boiler at home that keeps your house warm and provides gas for cooking on your gas stove or maybe in a gas oven as well.

It also provides fuels to make industrial processes work and for agricultural machinery such as diesel used in tractors and in combine harvesters, that sort of thing.

Some fuels are also used for generating electricity.

So we burn them and use them to produce electricity, which then goes on to light our homes to power our electrical devices, et cetera.

And all of these processes release greenhouse gases and all of those greenhouse gas emissions are accounted for within their own sectors.

But if we were to group all of those up together and place them under the energy industry label, we would see that the energy industry is therefore at the root of it, contributing to over 75% of all the greenhouse gas emissions that occur through all of the different UK sectors.

So whilst they aren't being accounted for against the energy industry directly, the energy industry is what is supplying all of those fuels so that they can be used in the other sectors across the UK.

So, the energy industry emits over 75% of all greenhouse gases.

True or false? So you should have said that that is false.

And it is false because most of the greenhouse gases are emitted when fuels are burned for transport, for heating, for industry, for other purposes.

And therefore most of the fuels are not being burnt by the energy industry but by other sectors instead.

Well done if you got that correct.

So the energy industry is supplying a huge range of fuels to other sectors in order for electricity to be generated and for other processes to occur.

However, the energy industry could also generate electricity with renewable sources such as hydroelectricity as you can see in that top left picture.

Water is stored behind a dam, and as it flows downhill, it can be used to generate electricity.

Or through solar, and that is increasingly becoming a way of generating electricity or through wind farms, both on land and offshore.

So whilst the energy industry is supplying great quantities of fuel to other sectors, they could also be supplying electricity through renewable sources instead.

And therefore have no greenhouse gas emissions associated with those fuels or with that electricity.

Now, if we increase the amount of electricity which is being generated by renewable sources, then we can reduce the number of greenhouse gas emissions.

And this is definitely worth doing because we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent further climate change and climate catastrophe.

So replacing the burning of fuels with electricity which has been generated by renewable sources, will reduce emissions.

But will add to the amount of reduction of emissions that is being made.

If we do other things as well, such as switch to electric vehicles and electric heat pumps for heating and cooling our buildings, then we will continue to make greater dents on the greenhouse gas emissions total, bringing that value down and improving the outlook for climate change.

So which of these produces the least amount of greenhouse gases? A petrol car that burns fuel? An electric car charged with electricity from solar panels? Or an electric car charged with electricity from a gas power station? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Okay, so which produces the least amount of greenhouse gases? You should have said the electric car charged with electricity from solar panels.

Well done if you did.

Okay, let's review the energy industry.

So Alex, Sam, and Lucas are discussing the role of government in tackling climate change.

Alex says, "The government should pass laws "so that everyone has to take action "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Sam says, "There's no point taking action "because other countries aren't doing much about it." And Lucas says, "The UK should lead the way "even if it means costs to businesses going up." So what do you think about what each of these students is saying? And why might some people disagree with you? So, pause the video, spend a reasonable amount of time giving that good thought and consideration and come back to me when you're ready.

Okay, let's review your work.

So your answers might include the following, you might have the agree or the disagree points and have put the other ones down as examples of why people might disagree with you.

So interpret your work appropriately.

So Alex said, the government should pass laws and he might be agreed with because this stops a few people getting in the way of everyone else's efforts.

And people might disagree with this because individuals should have the right to make their own choices.

Lucas says, "The UK should lead the way." And people might agree with him because the UK is a rich country and needs to lead by example, and we can develop new world leading green technologies.

But people might disagree with Lucas because the UK businesses would have higher costs and could lose out to ones in other countries.

And then Sam says, "There's no point taking action." And people might agree with them because the UK taking action won't be enough on its own, and other countries will use it as an excuse to do less.

And people might disagree with Sam and say, "All actions will contribute towards a solution." So just review your work over and see where you sat and where people might disagree with you.

And do add any other ideas that are on the screen that you might not have considered to your own work.

Well done indeed.

Okay.

We've reached the end of our lesson today.

And what we've seen in our lesson is that the three biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the UK are domestic transport buildings and industry.

And industry is responsible for manufacturing or producing products to sell.

Now, most of the greenhouse gas emissions from the UK industry, are of carbon dioxide, which could be captured and stored, but this is very expensive.

Now the energy industry generates electricity and provides fuels to burn, and this in total contributes to over 75% of all of the greenhouse gas emissions.

However, if we were able to switch to electric power transport and heating and generate electricity using renewable resources, then we would be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

So I hope you found this an interesting lesson and an interesting exploration of sectors of the UK that we might not know very much about.

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye.