2009 Worldwide CO2 Emissions Data Released

2009 worldwide CO2 emissions dropped over one per cent to 31.3bn tonnes: the first repeated decline of the 2000s.

This is as per new data issued by German organisation IWR, which attributes the 1.3 per cent decrease to multiple factors including the global recession, twinned with the growing popularity of renewables as a source of investment.

Indeed, during 2009, worldwide renewable energy, fuel and heat investments hit 120bn Euros – a five billion increase over 2008.

Worldwide CO2 Emissions Drop

On the flipside, however, the situation raises questions over whether an even more positive worldwide CO2 emissions drop could have been produced in the absence of the global economic downturn.

The director of IWR, Norbert Allnoch, believes it could, and highlights how – while the United States, Japan, Russia and Europe all reigned in their greenhouse gas emission levels – countries in Asia and the Middle East produced more CO2 than before.

“The energy-induced CO2 output in China in 2009 due to its economic growth has grown to a level now that is as high as that of the U.S. and Russia combined”, Allnoch explains.

CO2 Emissions Released

China itself produced more emissions than any other nation in 2009 – 7.43bn tons of them – while the US, Russia, India and Japan also released significant amounts of CO2, placing them all in the top five emitters category.

The recession did have one positive knock-on effect, in that it resulted in wind and solar power technologies reducing in price, making them more affordable and leading to greater investment into them.

Despite this, IWR suggests that the world needs to be spending 500 billion Euros on renewables before worldwide CO2 emissions can be regarded as having stabilised, and to ensure that fossil fuel use is curbed.

Overall, worldwide CO2 emission levels remain 37 per cent above comparable 1990 levels: 1990 being the benchmark year established by the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. On that basis, it can be said the world still has much left to do.

See also:

Recession to Cut 2009 Emissions by 2%

2009 US CO2 Emissions to Drop Five Per Cent