Global emissions of CO2 drop 1.3% in 2009, But Rise Again in 2010

In 2009, Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) dropped by 1.3%, but it may rise again and reach record levels in 2010 as per new study from the University of Exeter (UK).

As per a new study from the University of Exeter (UK) and East Anglia, both in Britain, and other global institutions, Global CO2 emissions may rise again in 2010. In spite of the economic crisis and an overall fall in GDP last year, Global emissions of carbon dioxide dropped by 1.3% in 2009. The reduction was smaller than expected by many experts a year ago.

The study is part of the annual carbon budget update by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), an international group of climate scientists and analysts that collates emissions data to help policymakers.

The main contributor of global warming, CO2 is emitted from burning of fossil fuel in power stations, cement manufacture and changes in land use, like deforestation.

According to Pep Canadell, a scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and executive director of Global Carbon Project (GCP), if world economies will begin to recover and grow in 2010 as expected, then CO2 emissions may be increased by more than 3% in 2010.

As per an Exeter and East Anglia statement “The global financial crisis severely affected western economies, leading to large reductions in CO2 emissions. For example, Britain emissions were 8.6 percent lower in 2009 than in 2008.”

The same figures can be applied to USA, Japan, France, Germany, and most additional industrialized nations. However, in spite of the financial crisis, and considerable increases in CO2 emissions, emerging economies had a strong economic performance. For example: “China more than 8 percent, India more than 6.2 percent”

Nature quoted Professor Pierre Friedlingstein said, “The 2009 drop in CO2 emissions is less than half that anticipated a year ago. This is because the drop in world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was less than anticipated and the carbon intensity of world GDP, which is the amount of CO2 released per unit of GDP, improved by only 0.7 per cent in 2009 - well below its long-term average of 1.7percent per year.”

Due to dropped CO2 emissions from tropical deforestation, since 2000 than the 1990s, global CO2 emissions from deforestation have been reduced by over 25 percent.

Professor Corinne Le Quere, from the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, “For the first time, forest expansion in temperate latitudes has overcompensated deforestation emissions and caused a small net sink of CO2 outside the tropics”

The study is available in a Nature Geoscience issue, a scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group.