In total, over the last year. That’s not a joke, but a quote of Pierre Friedlingstein, of Exeter University. Due to the global economic downturn, the world’s CO2 emissions were 1.3 percent lower. That is just half the expected decline, as emissions kept rising in Asia.

The news comes from British researchers of the Global Carbon Project. Their findings were published in Nature Geoscience.

This year the global CO2 emissions are expected to rise by 3 percent. Although the trend over the last decade is a continued rise in emissions, a 3 percent rise in one year would be a new record.

The main thing the report shows is the connection between economic activity and CO2 emissions have only intensified. The main reason is cheap, overabundant coal that does not quite fit into the world’s 450 Scenario.

© Rolf Schuttenhelm | www.bitsofscience.org