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2012 Was a “Remarkable Year” as Far as Carbon Emissions Go

Carbon emissions are still on the rise, only slower than in previous years

Nov 1, 2013 20:46 GMT  ·  By
Researchers find global carbon emissions are increasing at a slower rate than the one recorded over the past decade
   Researchers find global carbon emissions are increasing at a slower rate than the one recorded over the past decade

The Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European Commission's Joint Research Center maintain that, as a new report shows, the year 2012 was a “remarkable” one as far as carbon emissions are concerned.

Moe precisely, the organizations say that, although global annual carbon emissions are still on the rise (all hail to the economic growth), they are rising considerably slower than they did in previous years.

“In 2012, a ‘decoupling’ of the increase in CO2 emissions from global economic growth (in GDP) took place, which points to a shift towards less fossil-fuel intensive activities, more use of renewable energy and increased energy saving,” the report reads.

Furthermore, “[2012] may be the first sign of a slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions, and of ultimately declining global emissions.”

According to Mongabay, global emissions have risen about 2.9% annually over the past 10 years. In 2012, however, things took a turn for the better, meaning that an increase of just 1.1 was recorded.

This decrease occurred despite the fact that, in 2012, global economy is documented to have upped by about 3.5%.

By the looks of it, China and the US are to thank for the lower rate of carbon emissions’ rise. Thus, the former has made serious efforts to up its dependency on hydropower, whereas the latter has turned towards shale gas and renewables.

Feel free to shame EU countries though, as they have started using more coal than they used to. In fact, it appears that, in 2012, the UK used about 24% more coal than it did back in 2011.

India and Japan have also burned lots of coal in 2012, and have produced 7% and 6.2% more carbon emissions than they did the previous year.

As encouraging as this piece of news might sound to many, environmentalists warn that countries worldwide must up the ante in terms of further improving on their ecological footprint or risk experiencing catastrophic climate change in the not so distant future.

Thus, climate activist Bill McKibben with green group 350.org says that the findings of this report are “good news but nowhere near good enough.”