Global carbon pollution continues to rise, but more slowly
Associated PressWASHINGTON — The world continues to increase the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide it pumps into the air, but it’s not rising as fast as in the previous couple years. Since then, global carbon dioxide emissions have doubled, and the world is hurtling towards catastrophic climate change.” The 2019 estimate is based on data through the first nine to ten months of the year, with a few national estimates based only on six months of data, said co-author Glen Peters, a climate scientist in Norway. “A stronger switch from coal to solar or wind needs to happen to reach low climate targets.” Led by 10% drops in both the United States and Europe, carbon pollution from coal dropped worldwide nearly 1% but increased 2.6% from cleaner natural gas, according to the studies. “Though, I would imagine a slow and protracted decline of coal because of the young infrastructure in Asia.” But with coal dropping or even just plateauing, it is now apparent that the world is not quite on the worst-case scenario carbon emissions path of the four charted by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Peters said. Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who wasn’t part of the study, called the numbers grim: “Stepping back and looking at 30 years of data, there is nothing at all that reveals any reason to be optimistic that the world is about to turn the corner on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.” The United States, which is in the early part of a year-long process of pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, has reduced its carbon dioxide pollution by 9.7% between 2000 and 2018, Jackson calculated.