CO2 Emissions Still On The Rise

Source: energyfromthorium.com

Well so much for reducing carbon emissions.  As reported by The Associated Press on 4 November, new research by the US Department of Energy (DoE) has shown that global greenhouse gas emissions rose 6% in 2010.  Rather alarmingly, this represents the highest increase ever recorded, a “monster” increase that is unheard of, according to Gregg Marland, professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate US Department of Energy figures in the past which is particularly surprising given that we are in an economic crisis where you would expect production and the resulting emissions to be down.

The DoE findings came as the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), published the results of a study which found that clean coal plants in developing countries which receive financial incentives under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for new projects earmarked for countering climate change are doing little to reduce CO₂ emissions.  (EurActiv.com, 7 November 2011)

Under the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), emission-reduction projects in developing countries can earn certified emission reduction credits (CERs).  These credits can then be traded by member countries to meet part of their emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

But SEI’s analysis, funded by the Swedish government, found that most of the coal plants it studied should probably have been built “cleaner” from scratch instead and rightly questioned whether an offset-based, incentive-only system such as CDM should be supporting coal investments at all.

Blog by Neil Bradley