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Global Recession Cuts Down on Global Warming
Associated Press
The global recession has an up side, at least for people worried about climate change: carbon emissions are growing more slowly than in recent years, Dutch researchers said Thursday.
But they also said the emissions of developing countries were higher than those of the industrialized world for the first time last year.
Less money in the bank, higher oil prices and a growing use of wind, solar and other renewable energy resources put a brake last year on the increase of the most common greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, said the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
The growth in CO2 emissions halved to 1.7 percent, compared with a growth of 3.3 percent in 2007, and an average annual growth of 4 percent since 2002, said the report.
The world spewed 31.5 billion tons of carbon into the air last year, more than double the amount in 1970, it said.
Emissions actually declined by 3 percent in the United States in 2008 from the previous year, largely because high gasoline prices kept road travel down, said the agency, a government-funded body that advises the Netherlands on environmental policy.
U.S. fossil fuel consumption fell 7 percent last year, which led to global decline of 0.6 percent — the first drop since 1992, the report said.
Also for the first time, carbon emissions were higher from developing countries, including expanding economic powerhouses like China and India, than for the industrialized world.
“Every major economic recession would cause a blip on the energy consumption statistics and on carbon emissions,” said Jos Olivier, the report’s lead author. Whether the trend continues depends on the economic recovery, oil prices and on government policies that could encourage the curbing of pollution, he said in an interview.
The agency based its assessment on data gathered from a variety of sources, including a country-by-country fuel trend report by British Petroleum and statistics from the European Union’s Joint Research Center, the International Energy Agency in Paris and the Energy Information Agency in Washington. Two years ago it was the first to report that China had overtaken the United States as the world’s largest emitter.
The report takes on added significance since it comes five months before 192 countries are due to agree on a new deal to control greenhouse gases, replacing the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. Under Kyoto, industrialized countries agreed to reduce carbon emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels, while developing countries faced no obligations.
Olivier said one message of the report is that developing countries are equally important in combating climate change.
The report said China’s emissions grew 6 percent last year, the lowest rate since 2001. China’s voracious use of coal and its production of cement and steel have tapered off since peaking in 2004, when its one-year increase in pollution was 17 percent.
In negotiations on a climate change accord to be concluded in Copenhagen, China has refused to accept binding limits on its carbon emissions, arguing that per person it emits far less than the United States and Europe.
The Dutch report said that gap is shrinking. China emitted 2 tons of CO2 per capita in 1990, but that has now reached 5.5 tons. That remains far below U.S. levels, which was 18.5 tons per capita last year.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Global warming is one of the largest haox of todays media and politicians. This is still widely disputed among environmental scientists and there is NO evidence that global warming exists nor that CO2 emissions increase global warming.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Somehow the scientific reports show increasing CO2 content in the atmosphere; which seems to be in line with this report, since it is mainly a reduction of increase involved due to so called third world heavy increase of fossil fuel use. All the while world temperatures are declining since 2002. Seems as if some lack of correspondence between CO2 levels and temperature levels is blossoming again. This is just as non government paid or sponsored (honest) scientists have been saying for years. There is no appreciable human effect on global warming; or as now the case, global cooling. Let’s wake up and quit bowing at the religion of negativity and despair of global warming and operate clean and efficient energy without being taxed and defrauded by socialist and other political criminals world wide.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Give me a break! Global warming is a crock! It’s being proven to be false and now they are grasping at straws to find an “excuse” for it being the “Y2K” of environmental science. This is hilarious!!!!!
July 6th, 2009 at 6:14 am
There is no global warming. The world is cooling get with the times. The sun is in another cooling cycle with less solar flare activity the minute global CO2 release humans are responsible that has debatedly increased the surface temperture of the earth over the past 150 years has provided the human race the chance to feed people by increasing the growing seasons and moderate temperate zones of the earth. A little global warming can only be a good thing because understand this you can grow food in warm climates but you cannot in cold. Prepare yourself for the next coming of glaciation ice age.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
THATS JUST NOT TRUE ,ACCORDING TO YOU LOT OF RADICALS C02 HAS GONE UP AND YET THE TEMPS ARE GOING DOWN EVEN BEFORE THE RECESSION SO ITS MORE LIES ,THE SUN CONTROLS THE HEAT ,TURN IT OFF YOU GET ICE NO MATTER HOW MUCH C02 THERE IS ,HISTORY CLEARLY SHOWS THAT ALL THESE CROOK FIGURES ARE FAKE AND NOT EVEN CLOSE TO REALITY .THIS IS ANOTHER MADOFF SCAM ONLY THIS TIME ITS A GORE SCAM ,EVEN WHEN HE WENT TO COURT IN THE UK HE LOST ON HIS FAKE EVIDENCE .
July 7th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Old Timer has it right: if global temperature increases are flattening, as they have since 2001, while CO2 concentrations are rising, then there’s no correlation between the two.
END of STORY.
And anyone who thinks a change in economic output in year X automatically yields a decline in CO2 concentrations the same year, in a linear manner, is…an ignorant AP “science” writer!
July 8th, 2009 at 4:01 am
Someone said nature can’t keep up…not even remotely true. Nature can bite man in the … at any given time and rescope this planet. You know, a long time ago this atmosphere was mainly CO2 and nature created vegetation. Then something strange happened, a lethal compound starting to fill the atmosphere and the vegetation was in danger so nature created carbon base life who would breathe in this lethal compound… it was called, oxygen. Many people can say that man is causing catastrophic problems to our planet but bear in mind, NATURE will take care of MotherEarth. (I am not refuting that we need to keep our planet clean…I don’t live in a dirty house, nor drive a dirty vehicle and I surely don’t want to live on a dirty planet. Earthlings need to have some pride and appreciation of this big, wonderful, blue, miracle ball we live on.) All your cap and trade and wind mills etc. will not even begin to correct anything like Nature will when it comes time for it to intervene and I promise you….she will.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am
The Global Recession that began last August is responsible to the reverse of Global Warming that started 4 years ago? Even the cult believers aren’t trying to defend this ridiculous article.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Ahh, Cap and Trade… yes, this will solve every little problem for the U.S. government; and the energy companies can pay for the money demo’s have been magically gifting to failing companies. No, you can print and print and print money. but one day your money will be useless and the american public will kick your a$$es out of office, while we starve having a pocket full of worthless bills, and bare shelves at the supermarket. Imported products will not return to our shores having too little value here.. yes cap and trade is the start of biggest transfer of funds this nation will ever face. from our pocket to eventually the C.E.O’s of governmentally funded companies. THIS ISN’T A CONSPERICY! is it GM?!