Carbon dioxide of fossil fuels and deforestation have caused the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to increase by about 43% since the beginning of the age of industrialization. Most carbon dioxide from human activities is released from burning coal and other fossil fuels. Other human activities, including deforestation, biomass burning, and cement production also produce carbon dioxide. Human activities emit about 29 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, while volcanoes emit between 0.2 and 0.3 billion tons. Human activities have caused to increase above levels not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. Currently, about half of the carbon dioxide released
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (ERC) is the conversion of carbon dioxide to more reduced chemical species using electrical energy. The first examples of electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide are from the 19th century, when carbon dioxide was reduced to carbon monoxide using a zinc cathode. Research in this field intensified in the 1980s following the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide represents a possible means of producing chemicals or fuels, converting carbon dioxide () to organic feedstocks such as formic acid (HCOOH), methanol (CHOH), ethylene (CH), methane (CH), and