Generation of CO2 emissions from the Ecuadorian manufacturing industry, a path to sustainability

Abstract

The industrial manufacturing sector in Ecuador promotes the development and economic growth of the country; however, its industrial processes generate environmental impacts on the environment such as water pollution, waste generation, energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions, the latter being the subject of this study. In this research, the current expenditure and investment made by manufacturing industries to prevent CO₂ emissions generated by the consumption of fuels and liquid lubricants in industrial processes was analyzed. The degree of correlation and the incidence between the variables under study were determined by applying multiple linear regression models. For the analysis we used the database obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), corresponding to the environmental module: ENESEM (Business Structural Survey) for the year 2020. The results obtained show that 37.7% of the companies spent current expenses on environmental activities to prevent emissions or pollutant concentrations in the air, while 2.8% of the total number of industries made environmental investments; therefore, it is important that companies apply environmental protection strategies to prevent the effects caused by production processes. The fuels that generated the greatest amount of CO₂ emissions are waste fuel oil, coal, and natural gas, which are used mainly in boilers, transportation, direct heat, motive power, and refrigeration.