Kategori : ENERGY AGENDA NEWS, ENERGY EFFICIENCY NEWS - Tarih : 18 February 2020

Global carbon dioxide emissions stopped growing in 2019, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has claimed in a new report.

According to the report released today, global CO2 emissions held at around 33 gigatonnes (Gt) last year, following two years of increases. The authors attribute the apparent good news to the expansion of renewable wind and solar energy sources, nations switching from coal to natural gas energy generation, and additional nuclear power output.

It is not, however, the first time that IEA has claimed CO2 emissions have stopped rising. Data from the same methodology, which uses figures self-reported by nations, show that CO2 emissions also flatlined from 2014 to 2015, with only a 0.1% Gt growth in 2016. Meanwhile, global atmospheric CO2 concentrations, along with global temperatures, have continued to rise.

The IEA report says the largest declines in emissions were seen in the developed world, with the U.S. having cut the most CO2 on a per-country basis. “[U.S.] emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period,” the report states, attributing much of that decline to a 15% reduction in the use of coal.