As the situation is getting more and more desperate and climate gets weirder, global greenhouse gases emissions keep on increasing globally. As the International Energy Agency stated last week :
” Global carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil-fuel combustion reached a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2011, according to preliminary estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA). ”
” This represents an increase of 1.0 Gt on 2010, or 3.2%. Coal accounted for 45% of total energy-related CO2 emissions in 2011, followed by oil (35%) and natural gas (20%).”
China‘s decision to work hard on mitigating climate change and decreasing its coal consumption is acclaimed but is way too little as the country’s emissions grew by a massive 9.3 percent in a single year.
This increase of no less than 720 million tonnes (Mt) could have been much worse as the IEA notes that without its efforts, China would have seen its emissions increase by 1,500 Mt (or 1.5 Gt).
But this should make us forget that China alone is reponsible for three quarters of the global greenhouse gases emissions increase !
Still in Asia, India’s emissions rose by 140 Mt, or 8.7 percent,while Japan’s emissions increased by 28 Mt, or 2.4 percent, as a result of a substantial increase in the use of fossil fuels in power generation post-Fukushima.
Globally, non-OECD emissions grew by 6.1 percent while OECD countries saw their emissions decrease by 0.6 percent.
It is worth noting that US emissions fell by nearly eight percent since 2006 because of the economic downturn, high oil prices but also thanks to gains in efficiency, the replacement of coal by natural gas.
