Comment on Global Carbon Budget 2017

Richard Black comments on projected rise in global carbon emissions in 2017

By George Smeeton

info@eciu.net

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Commenting on the publication of the 2017 Global Carbon Budget, which says global CO2 emissions are projected to rise by the end of 2017 compared with the preceding year, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said:

Figures from the Global Carbon Project show that emissions per unit economic output (emissions intensities) generally decline over time. Image: creative commons licence
Figures from the Global Carbon Project show that emissions per unit economic output (emissions intensities) generally decline over time. Image: creative commons licence

“This shouldn’t really come as a surprise given the uptick in GDP growth in mining and manufacturing that China reported in the first half for the year.

“And while some will see it as alarming, the graphs from the Global Carbon Project all show an unequivocal trend of decoupling economic growth from emissions – which just a few years ago would have seemed extraordinary.

“Put that together with the huge clean energy plans that both China and India have in train, and one has to query the scientists’ prediction that this is the end of a ‘temporary hiatus’ – it might prove to be that, but equally it might well prove a small blip on an otherwise flatteningemissions curve.”