sectoral economic costs and benefits of ghg mitigation - IPCC

Oliver Zwirner
Table 2 Estimate of CO 2 Emissions of the German Financial Sector
Sector Full-time employees Average
emissions per
employee
Estimated total
emissions
Percentage of
national emissions
t.p.a t 900,000,000 t
Banks 750.000 4,4 3.286.961 0,4%
Insurance 360.000 4,7 1.674.494 0,2%
FSP 1.110.000 4,5 4.961.455 0,6%
Figure 3
Sources of CO 2 -Emissions
Business
Travel
19%
Heating
25%
Electricity
56%
In 1998, 360,000 people were in full-time employment in the insurance industry (GDV 1998). As
annual emissions per employee are nearly 5 tonnes emissions from the insurance sector are 1.7
million tonnes of CO 2 . That is 0.2% of overall German emissions (900 million tonnes of CO 2 per
year). Banking in Germany employs 750,000 people (BdB 2000). Per-employee emissions of 4.4
tonnes would produce more than 3 mill/t and a share of 0.3%. Thus the financial services sector
produces at least 0.6% of overall CO 2 emissions. In the 19 companies studied, the use of
electricity is the source of over half the emissions (figure 3). Measures taken to increase energy
efficiency and reduce energy use should therefore focus on this area.
Even at temperate latitudes, as in the case of the German-speaking countries, one of the big
electricity requirements is for air conditioning - and particularly cooling- of buildings and large
computer centres. In hotter climates or regions with other needs in terms of office temperature
the amount of electricity required for air conditioning may be considerably higher. In these cases,
a lot of investment will be required in order to improve energy efficiency.
In Germany, electricity is produced mainly in central power stations with an efficiency rate of
approx. 35%. One way to start reducing emissions from big office buildings, irrespective of the
branch of industry, is to have a generator for both electricity and heat on site (co-generation of
heat and power). Energy efficiency can be roughly doubled in this way. Switching to low-carbon
fuels, such as natural gas, can also reduce emissions. Investing in co-generation of heat and
power is perhaps one of the most economical, if not profitable, measures that can be taken to
reduce CO 2 emissions in the financial sector.
Emissions resulting from business travel (figure 4) can be dealt with by using video-conferencing
and e-commerce. These methods are sometimes already being used, especially as they keep
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