Global Downturn Has Created Drop In Carbon Emissions
A report citing an International Energy Agency study shows that greenhouse gas emissions have fallen thanks to the global downturn, handing the world a chance to move away from high-carbon growth, AFP reported.
Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels had dropped significantly this year — further than in any year in the past four decades, according to the unpublished IEA study.
While falling industrial output was largely responsible for the emissions plunge, other factors such as shelving plans for new coal-fired power stations because of falling demand and lack of financing also played a role.
The results of the study published in the Financial Times newspaper suggest the fall will exceed the drop in the 1981 recession that followed a crisis in the oil markets.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, said they have a new situation with the changes in energy demand and the postponement of many energy investments, but that only has meaning if they can make use of the unique window of opportunity to make a deal in Copenhagen.
Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the December meeting in Copenhagen aims to set down action for tackling heat-trapping carbon emissions beyond 2012, when the current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol run out.
Emission levels have also been impacted by government policies to cut emissions, with the IEA estimating that regulation resulted in about a quarter of the reduction.
The new study is an excerpt from the Paris-based IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook, which will be published in November. The FT said the excerpt will be released early next month ahead of the Copenhagen meeting.
This week, world leaders will meet in New York and Pittsburgh for pivotal talks in the two-year effort to remake global climate rules, ahead of the Copenhagen meeting.
A global agreement is needed in Copenhagen to encourage companies to cut emissions, Birol said.
He added that while they hoped that an agreement in Copenhagen would give a signal for new investments to go in an environmentally sustainable direction, if they miss this opportunity, it will be much more expensive and therefore harder than ever to bring the world’s energy system on to a sustainable path.
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