Environment

Global CO2 emissions are expected to rise again following the first decrease in over a decade, according to the latest statistics released today by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Statistics for 2009 show that emission levels for the group of countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol – a multinational agreement to mitigate climate change – were just shy of 15% below their 1990 level.

Other key findings include: *
Two-thirds of global emissions for 2009 originated from just ten countries, with the shares of China and the United States far surpassing those of all others. (Combined, these two countries alone produced 41% of the world’s CO2 emissions)*

Between 1990 and 2009, CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal grew from 40% to 43% and natural gas from 18 to 20%, while CO2 emissions from oil fell from 42% to 37%*

Two sectors – Electricity and heat generation and transport – produced nearly two-thirds of global CO₂emissions in 2009, up from 58% in 1990

The reports described how while the emissions of developing countries continued to grow in 2009 (+3.3%), led by Asia and the Middle East, the emissions of developed countries fell sharply (-6.5%), putting them at 6.4% below their 1990 collective level.

It should be noted that 2009 emission levels for the group of countries participating in the Kyoto protocol were 14.7% below their 1990 level.Global CO2 emissions actually decreased by 0.5 Gt CO2 between 2008 and 2009, which represented a decline of 1.5%.

However, trends varied greatly, due to these diverging trends, the share of total emissions for developing countries increased to 54% (excluding bunkers), after becoming larger than the developed countries share for the first time since 2008.

This entry was posted in Carbon Emission, Environment.