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There is good news and there is bad news in today’s report. Let’s start with the good news first, as the bad news tragically trumps it in a deleterious way. So on to the uplifting news foremost.
According to the International Energy Agency, in 2012, the U.S. posted its lowest pollution levels since the mid-90s. Emissions dropped by more than 200 million tons, or by about 3.8 percent, mostly attributed to a traversing from coal to gas-powered energy sources. Similarly, Europe also posted a 1.4 percent reduction of emissions, a decline of 50 million tons.
Yet still, this was not enough to stem the tide of industrializing nations like China, Brazil, India and others—whose provocations with pollution essentially render the reductions in U.S. and in the E.U. as less than satiable on the global scale.
The annual World Energy Outlook report was released by the IEA this week, and it bore with it some less than uplifting news. According to the report, China was the biggest producer of worldwide emissions in 2012; its emissions were up by 300 million tons or about a 3.8 percent increase since 2011. While this is still yucky news, the upside of this is that the increase was the least amount over a ten year span, thanks to the Chinese investing in newer, cleaner and more renewable energy sources.
According to the IEA, energy production accounts for more than two-thirds of all worldwide pollution output (CO2 and other greenhouse gases). The report also found that these emitted gases put the earth on pace for a 3.6-5.3 C (6.5-9.5 F) temperature increase.
“Climate change has quite frankly slipped to the back burner of policy priorities. But the problem is not going away — quite the opposite,” stated IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven.
For decades scientists have warned that an increase of the world’s temperature to such highs could have devastating impact on the entire world. As coastal waters continue to rise with global warming and glacier melting, entire regions could disappear in the years to come, covered by water.
In the IEA report, they stated that many countries are heeding the warning and are implanting fortuitous systems to help spur emission decline. For example, London has stated that by the year 2020 they expect to post a serious decline in emissions thanks to newer technologies. This process includes: improving energy efficiency in buildings industry and transport, limiting the use of coal-fired power plants, halving the oil and gas industry’s release of methane, and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
This week, in Bonn, Germany, negotiators for climate change will be commencing another annual meeting to discuss a global approach to change. They will be hammering out the details of a proposed global climate pact that is hoped to be adopted by the nations of the world by as soon as 2015.
According to the IEA report, developing countries worldwide account for greater than 60 percent of the world’s emitted pollution during the present day.
