- Carbon dioxide emissions, the main driver of global warming, could fall 3 per cent worldwide in 2009 due to the global economic crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said
The recession-driven fall could lead to CO2 emissions in 2020 being 5 per cent lower than the IEA forecast from just a year ago. (freefoto.uk)
This would be the steepest drop in CO2 emissions for 40 years, chief IEA economist Fatih Birol said at a press conference in Bangkok, adding that the average annual growth in global carbon output until now has been 3 per cent.
Dr Birol said this silver-lining drop in carbon pollution was a “unique window of opportunity” for the world to put itself on a path to limit the increase in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius, the scientific threshold for dangerous global warming.
The recession-driven fall would lead to CO2 emissions in 2020 being 5 per cent lower than the IEA forecast from just a year ago, even if no further action is taken to curb global warming, he added.
The IEA estimate is part of its World Energy Outlook report, an excerpt of which was released at UN climate talks underway in the Thai capital. Read the rest of this entry »
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The US 
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