Indications have emerged that the environmental threat of oil and gas production and utilization may be slowly fading as the International Energy Agency, IEA, has put the global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions at 32.1 billion.
In its latest report, the agency disclosed that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) – the largest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions – stayed flat for the second year in a row, according to analysis of preliminary data for 2015.
“The new figures confirm last year’s surprising but welcome news: we now have seen two straight years of greenhouse gas emissions decoupling from economic growth,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“Coming just a few months after the landmark COP21 agreement in Paris, this is yet another boost to the global fight against climate change.”
It indicated that global emissions of carbon dioxide stood at 32.1 billion tonnes in 2015, having remained essentially flat since 2013.
The IEA preliminary data suggest that electricity generated by renewables played a critical role, having accounted for around 90 per cent of new electricity generation in 2015; wind alone produced more than half of new electricity generation.
It noted that in parallel, the global economy continued to grow by more than three per cent, offering further evidence that the link between economic growth and emissions growth is weakening.
The agency disclosed that in the more than 40 years in which the IEA has been providing information on CO- 2emissions, there have been only four periods in which emissions stood still or dropped compared to the previous year.
