This article was written by Pep Canadell from CSIRO, and was originally published by The Conversation.
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But unlike past periods with little or no emissions growth, global gross domestic product has grown substantially over the past two years, the researchers point out.
A new study presented at the UN Climate Change Conference reveals how for the first time ever, there will be a trend in declining levels of carbon dioxide emissions around the world. If the last two years, the world economy drove growth in 2014 t emissions grew very little. This time is different. Jackson and an international team used data from the Global Carbon Project, which tracks worldwide CO2 emissions.
“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 4% in 2015”.
“This study shows that emissions can decline while there is growth in global economic activity”, Levin said.
Nevertheless, the researchers were cautious about the findings, saying even if emissions peak in the next couple decades, “we’ll still be emitting massive amounts of Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels”.
The single biggest factor appears to be a marked reduction in China’s use of coal to make electricity.
“The break has to do with China’s economic instability”, study co-author Corinne Le Quéré, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in Norwich told Nature News.
But others argue that China’s appetite for coal will revive when the economy picks up, even if the days of double-digit growth are over. From 2013 to 2014, more than 50 percent of the increase in its primary energy consumption was taken from non-fossil fuel sources. I’m enthusiastic about all fields of science, a science author for many years and groomer of felines. This comes amid a continuing trend of less emissions per unit of GDP. We all are aware that C02 is one of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. This is perhaps the first sign of a looming peak on a not-too-distant horizon. Our preliminary assessment indicates that the implementation of our climate change pledges (the INDCs) up to 2030 would cost approximately $2.5 trillion.
However, China is not alone in this game.
Graph showing the annual carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industrial processes since 1990.
2015 has been an extraordinary year, and not just because of China. It is for this reason that India continues to increase her commitment to reducing emissions and adopting cleaner technologies; we may not be part of the problem, but we want to be part of the solution.
Per person emissions in Australia remain high but are dropping in line with recent years, the report found.
There may be hope for the Earth’s climate after all.
But 2015 is a historic year to galvanise further action.
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Carbon-curbing strategies focus on improving energy efficiency from traditional fossil fuels and on shifting to low- or zero-carbon sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal or nuclear. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, more than 1,000 companies now say that they have set an internal price or plan to in the future. Read the original article.
