North America
North America is in this study defined as the USA and Canada. Mexico is not included, since the economic structure of the country is significantly different. Instead, Mexico is included in the region Other industrials. This region currently has greenhouse gas emissions of 6.5 Gt CO2e (in 2002). The business-as-usual scenario implies an increase to 8.8 Gt CO2e per year in 2030.
Abatement potential
The abatement potential in North America is estimated to about 4.4 Gt CO2e in 2030. The largest potential, in relative terms, is found in the Buildings sector where most of the business-as-usual emissions in 2030 could be eliminated. This is followed by the Transport (ca 45% of business-as-usual emissions), Power (ca 40%) and Industry (33%) sectors.
Abatement cost
The average cost varies substantially between the sectors. Within Buildings and Transport there is a significant potential of negative cost abatement opportunities. Looking only at the abatement potential at a cost below € 40/tonne CO2e, the average abatement cost in these two sectors are € -91/tonne CO2e in Buildings and € -2.5/tonne CO2e in Transport. Virtually all of the potential within these sectors come at a zero or negative cost. The other sectors have a cost of €
15/tonne CO2e in Agriculture, € 19/tonne CO2e in the Power sector and ca € 22/tonne CO2e in the Industry sector.
The average cost across all sectors turns out to be negative due to the significant amount of negative cost opportunities in the Buildings and Transport sectors. A more conservative estimate, valuing the negative cost opportunities at zero, would result in an average abatement cost of about € 10/tonne CO2e in North America.
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