The break-up between carbon emissions and economic growth may have begun

As per to a report titled “Reaching Peak Emission“, that appeared in journal Nature Climate Change, annual global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels could drop slightly in 2015.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and the Global Carbon Project said that global carbon emissions increased by 0.6 percent last year and could decline by as much as 0.6 percent this year to 35.7 gigatonnes. According to the study, which was presented at the ongoing COP21 climate summit in Paris, the slowdown in emissions growth in 2014 can be largely attributed to a recent decrease in coal use in China – a country that is responsible for 27 percent of global carbon emissions.

China remains the world’s worst carbon emitter and, because the energy needs of nations with growing economies continue to rely on coal – especially in developing countries such as India – “it is unlikely that emissions have declined for good”, said Corrine Le Quéré, a director of the Global Carbon Project. The surprising findings were published as 195 nations entered the final phase of U.N. talks for an accord to roll back carbon emissions, blamed for unsafe climate change.

More specifically, “CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry grew +0.6% in 2014, and are projected to decline by 0.6% in 2015”.

The research team said their projection for 2015 fell within a range of statistical uncertainty, from a decline of 1.6 percent to a small rise of 0.5 percent.

Unlike past periods with little or no emissions growth, global gross domestic product (GDP) grew substantially in both years.

Dr. Pep Canadell added that this is the first time that the worsening climate change and the economic progress have become inversely related.

Fellow Victoria University researcher Martin Manning said such a dropping carbon trend would be a win for the world’s environment – thanks to China in particular. Kerry stated he was hopeful in that the negotiations would reach an agreement by a Friday. deadline, still wouldn’t be stunned if the talks bled over in to the weekend.

“The hope is we’re on a new trajectory now – the (emissions) growth will be slow and we’ll see peak emissions within a decade or two”, Jackson said.

If you think this natural-gas flare at this North Dakota oil well is the problem rather than the solution, political scientists know how you vote. It showed global carbon emissions may fall slightly in 2015.

One of the new reports found that such an ambitious warming goal would require a global energy transition with such speed and scale as has never before been achieved, as well as an emphasis on “negative emissions” that have not been tested at the necessary magnitude that would be required.

As the authors of the paper write: “Even if emissions were to peak soon, global emissions would still take years to decline substantively”.

“We need the United States on board and we have to find a solution”, EU Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

But they caution that it will take more time to tell if this is just a temporary blip or a budding trend resulting from years of hard work around the world.

“Large parts of the world are embarking on industrialization a decade or more behind China and are using the same coal-based industrialization that China followed”, Socolow said. At current rates, India’s total emissions from fossil fuels will match that of the entire European Union in two to three years, the report said.