Global Emissions Up 1.4% In 2017

By Paul Homewood

Global carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2017 to a record-setting 32.5 gigatonnes, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Emissions rose after stalling for three years in a row, IEA reported. The Paris climate accord was signed by nearly 200 countries in 2015, which went into effect a year later. One year into the Paris accord, and emissions are on the rise.

IEA’s report echoes findings published by the Global Carbon Project late last year, predicting global emissions would rise 2 percent. The group projected emissions to rise again in 2018.

CO2 emissions rose because of a 2.1 percent increase in global energy demand, 70 percent of which was met by fossil fuels, especially natural gas and coal-fired electricity. China’s 6 percent jump in electricity demand was met by coal, IEA reported.

Meanwhile, U.S. emissions continued to fall “mainly because of higher deployment of renewables,” IEA reported on Thursday. U.K. emissions also fell, but European Union emissions grew last year, a no doubt awkward development for European leaders who chastised President Donald Trump for leaving the Paris accord.

A major reason emissions rose was because the world economy grew 3.7 percent last year. Higher economic growth means more emissions, despite claims that economic growth had begun to “decouple” from greenhouse gas emissions.

With 81 percent of the world’s energy being met with fossil fuels, any increase in economic activity necessitates more emissions. IEA issued a dire warning on 2017’s jump in emissions.

“The growth in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2017 is a strong warning for global efforts to combat climate change, and demonstrates that current efforts are insufficient to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” IEA warned.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/22/global-co2-emissions-hit-record-high/

Some of us have been predicting this since Paris, and before.

There is a very simple equation here:

If the global economy continues to grow, it will need more energy. And renewables are simply not up to the job of providing the cheap, reliable energy that growing economies need.

We will carry on seeing this pattern for many years to come – renewable energy will continue to grow rapidly, but from a tiny starting point. But conventional energy sources will need to provide more and more, if developing countries are to grow their economies.

Only a global recession will put the brake on emissions of CO2.

Of course, behind all of the smoke and mirrors, we need to remind ourselves that global emissions are already much higher than when this whole charade began in the 1990s, in the days of Kyoto.

Then we were told that emissions had to come down quickly, or else. Since then emissions have risen by nearly 50%.

Whether they go up or come down now by an odd percent or so is pretty much irrelevant when seen in those terms.