Global carbon emissions growth to stall in 2015 -research

We recently covered an analysis of global emissions of greenhouse gases in 2014 showing an encouraging slowdown in the growth of those emissions.

“The report from the Global Carbon Project led by a Stanford University researcher identified China as the world’s top carbon dioxide emitter in 2014, responsible for 27 per cent of global emissions, followed by the USA (15.5 per cent), the European Union (9.5 per cent) and India (7.2 per cent)”. “A lot of emerging economies are based on coal, and in just a few years emissions are going to go up really rapidly”.

Getting countries to pull together to set strict limits about carbon emissions and move away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy more suited to life in the 21st century is the focus of the meeting of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting now ongoing in Paris, France.

Jackson further added that during the times of economic recession Carbon dioxide emissions have slowed down.

The world’s biggest carbon emitter plans to upgrade coal power plants over the next five years to tackle the problem and says its emissions will peak by around 2030 before starting to decline.

“After sustained emissions growth over the past decade, China’s emissions growth slowed to 1.2 % in 2014 and is expected to decline by about four percent in 2015”.

The latest report by the Global Carbon Project, co-authored by CSIRO scientist Pep Canadell, found emissions from fossil fuels could decline by 0.6 per cent in 2015.

The research comes as world leaders conduct climate talks in Le Bourget, Paris, hoping to reach a deal this week that commits almost every country in the world to cutting carbon emissions.

Lead author and Stanford University’s professor Rob Jackson said, “If India’s emissions continue under the current trend, they will match the EU’s emissions before 2020”. “This is because energy needs for growing economies still rely primarily on coal, and emissions decreases in some industrial countries are still modest at best”, Le Quere said, in the statement.

The historic agreement would aim to slash carbon emissions with the goal of limiting global warming to at least two degrees.