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EU green efforts cancelled out by Indian coal expansion

A significant fall in EU carbon emissions as it pursues green energy was almost entirely cancelled out last year by soaring emissions from coal-burning India, new figures show.

On current trends India will overtake the EU as the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon, which causes global warming, within two to three years, scientists have said.

The findings form part of a new study which found that global emissions grew only marginally last year and could fall by as much as 1.6 per cent this year, due to China – the world’s biggest emitter - using less coal.

If confirmed, it would mark the first time that emissions have ever fallen at a time of strong economic growth.

Chinese coal use has declined as the county battles smog and air pollution, and as it builds increasing amounts of hydroelectric, nuclear, wind and solar power.

The study was unveiled in Paris at a UN summit where countries are trying to agree a new global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions to avert dangerous extremes of climate change.

But despite pledges made ahead of the summit, scientists warned that this year’s fall in emissions was likely to be a blip and emissions were likely to keep growing until at least 2030.

“It is unlikely that emissions have peaked for good,” Professor Corinne Le Quere of the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia, which led the study, said. “This is because energy needs for growing economies still rely primarily on coal, and emissions decreases in some industrial countries are still modest at best.”

Carbon emissions have been falling faster in the EU than any other region of the world in the past decade, at a rate of 2.4 per cent a year on average, after it imposed green energy targets and improved energy efficiency improvements cut consumption.

Last year emissions from the EU fell even further, by about 6 per cent, a fall scientists said had “a lot to do with weather conditions” – with 2014 the warmest year on record worldwide. The warm weather – blamed in part on global warming – meant consumers used less energy for their heating.

Dr Glen Peters, of the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Norway, said: “EU emissions went down about 200 million tonnes in 2014, which is about 6 per cent, which is quite impressive.

“Indian emissions went up pretty much the same amount, 200 million tonnes which is about 8 per cent growth so they sort of leveled each other out.”

Although on current trends Indian emissions will overtake EU emissions within a few years, emissions per person in India remained far lower than in the EU. Indian emissions were 2 tonnes per person in 2014, compared with 6.8 tonnes per person in the EU.

 The UK, which cut its carbon emissions by 9 per cent in 2014, is now responsible for 1.2 per cent of global emissions.

China remains the biggest polluter, accounting for 27 per cent of emissions, followed by the USA on 15 per cent, the EU on 10 per cent and India on 7 per cent.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk