Thanks to a significant increase in the use of renewable energy, CO2 emissions have remained static despite the fact that the world economy has increased. The International Energy Agency are pleased that there is no longer a correlation between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions, especially as this has been the case for consecutive years.
Fatih Birol who is the IEA chief considers that the fact that this has happened is enormous. There have only ever been three other occasions in the past 40 years when there was a drop or levelling of emissions and these all occurred when there were periods of weaknesses in the global economy.
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It is believed that the significant issue has been energy from renewables that has given the good results, and 9 of the ten new power plants were renewable – 5 of which were wind plants. There were efficiencies involved – this is the case in the USA, although other areas are equalling and even bettering their figures. In the USA, the fall was 2% and China 1.5%. In China it was mainly as a result of using less coal and only 70% of their electricity was produced this way. This is a 10% drop in 4 years. The Chinese have a war on coal, and the right figures are likely to continue in the future.
Birol states that the decoupling of growth and CO2 emissions is a boost against climate change. Combine China’s efforts along with the cleantech revolution and it’s clear that there is a plateau with regards to the emissions trend line.