The bar chart demonstrates how many million tons of carbon emitted from three different types of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom over a 20-year period.
Overall, the amount of carbon emissions from gas witnessed an upward trend over the period shown, meanwhile, a reverse pattern was seen for the other two categories, with a marginal fluctuation in oil’s data. Notably, although coal released the highest carbon’s amount in the first 5 years, gas gradually ranked first from 1995 onwards in the UK.
Regarding gas and coal, nearly 310 million tons of emitted carbon was recorded for the burning of coal, which was initially the dominant contributor and was around 1.5 times higher than that of gas, at 220 million tons. However, there was a subsequent constant decline in the figure for the UK’s coal to its low of 190 million tons, remaining in its bottom-most position from 2000 onwards. On the contrary, gas resources accounted for an increasing quantity of released carbon, eventually surpassing that of coal to become the leading factor in 2000, at 300 million tons, before peaking at 320 million tons in the final year.
In terms of the remaining fuel, the year of 1990 saw oil releasing the highest amount of carbon, with 270 million tonnes, after that, the figure hovered around 245 and 255 million tons, before registering a considerable decrease to its lowest point, at approximately 210 million tons in 2010.