IEA reports significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy sources are estimated to have reached record levels in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Emissions are estimated to have climbed to 30.6 gigatonnes (Gt), a five per cent rise from the previous record year in 2008 when levels reached 29.3Gt. In terms of fuels, 44 per cent of the estimated CO2 emissions in 2010 came from coal, 36 per cent from oil and 20 per cent from natural gas.
The IEA has also estimated that 80 per cent of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already ‘locked in’, as they will come from operational power plants or those currently under construction.
‘This significant increase in CO2 emissions and the locking in of future emissions due to infrastructure investments represent a serious setback to our hopes of limiting the global rise in temperature to no more than 2ºC,’ said Dr Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA who oversees the annual World Energy Outlook.
A target of limiting temperature increase to 2°C was agreed by world leaders at the UN climate change talks in Cancun in 2010. For this goal to be achieved, the long-term concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere must be limited to around 450 parts per million of CO2 equivalent — a five per cent increase compared with an estimated 430 parts per million in 2000.
The IEA’s 2010 World Energy Outlook set out the so-called 450 Scenario, an energy pathway claimed to be consistent with achieving this goal, based on the emissions targets that countries have agreed to reach by 2020. For this pathway to be achieved, global energy-related emissions in 2020 must not be greater than 32Gt. This means that, over the next 10 years, emissions must rise less in total than they did between 2009 and 2010.
‘Our latest estimates are another wake-up call,’ said Birol. ‘The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2ºC target is to be attained.
‘Given the shrinking room for manoeuvre in 2020, unless bold and decisive decisions are made very soon, it will be extremely challenging to succeed in achieving this global goal agreed in Cancun.’
Readers' comments (3)
Stephen Mosley | 1 Jun 2011 2:50 pm
Given that we have a global economy based on increasing consumerism I see very little to be surprised about. I suspect that we shall soon be exhorted to spend our way out of recession which will of course push the environment even further away from projections and targets. I wonder why it is that we never see this identified as a root cause for ecological problems in the media? Of course, far be it for me to suggest that vested interests of multi-nationals and governments kowtowing to the financial sector could play a part. No, instead all we see are electric cars, wind farms and China covered in smog.
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colinsteam | 3 Jun 2011 2:24 pm
Well said Stephen....mass production and forced labour have encouraged a throwaway world in which industrialists thrive but ultimately is guaranteed to grind to a smoking halt.
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randydutton | 14 Jun 2011 11:42 pm
Remember that rising CO2 makes plants to grow faster and with more bulk.
Often missing in these articles it the effect methane contributes to supposed climate change. And water vapor caused by progressive policies of growing food for fuel. In the US 40 million acres of marginal land was added to production to grow biofuel feedstock. Much of the land has to be irrigated. So calculate how much water vapor is added to the atmosphere from irrigating 40 million acres. Then also calculate the 'carbon debt' from plowing 40 million acres of once-fallow marginal land. And on top of that, add in the global warming effect of the added N2O, which is released by fertilizer used to grow biofuel feedstock on this marginal land.
Progressive policies are adding numerous greenhouse gas contributors to the atmosphere.
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