Mendoza and Buenos Aires

PULIAFITOE, CONTE GRAND M., CIVIT B., BOCHACA F., GAIOLI F. Y TARELA P

Can Cities Reduce Global Warming? Urban Development and the Carbon Cycle in Latin America

Estirpe

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2005; p. 39 - 63

Argentina used to be one of the leading countries of the world, as regards economic development and standards of living. However, as time went by, the gap between developed countries and Argentina expanded, as the latter´s output was considerably overcome by the Western European countries and USA in the last measure (their per capita GDP was 129% and 183%, respectively, above Argentina´s record in 1992). Transport, electricity, gas and water, finance, mining and services emerged as the most dynamic sectors, having average annual real growth rates above that one of the overall economy. We will proceed to present only a short summary of this National IPCC Report (Arg-1997) to understand emission trajectories of the two selected urban centers, Buenos Aires and Mendoza. The GHG have different capacity to increase the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, based in their radiative impact and their atmospheric life time. To compare all gases, we need to introduce a parameter called global warming potential (GWP), where the reference gas is carbon dioxide CO with a potential value of one.  This chapter makes an assessment about the carbon emissions of the two argentinean provinces and aims to help urban planners to reshape their policies to a more de-carbonizated city. The main result of this research can be summarized saying that the burn of fossil fuels in their different forms, energy production, industry and transport, continues to be the main CO emitter. Food production is relevant at the country level (emissions of CH and N O), but does not appear directly as a main source in the urban areas.