Global carbon dioxide emissions from power production flattened last year to 33 gigatonnes after two years of increase, despite expectations of another rise as the world economy expanded, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.
The growth of renewable energy and fuel switching from coal to natural gas led to less emissions from advanced economies.
Milder weather in several countries and slower economic growth in some emerging markets also contributed, the agency said.
“This welcome halt in emissions growth is grounds for optimism that we can tackle the climate challenge this decade,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement. “We now need to work hard to make sure that 2019 is remembered as a definitive peak in global emissions, not just another pause in growth.”
Emissions from advanced economies fell to levels last seen in the late 1980s, when electricity demand was one-third lower, the IEA said.
EU emissions fell by 160 million tonnes, or 5 percent, last year from a year earlier due to more use of natural gas and wind power in electricity generation, with Germany reducing emissions to levels not seen since the 1950s.
The US recorded a fall of 140 million tonnes, or 2.9 percent, in emissions from 2018, led by a 15 percent drop in coal power and as milder weather subdued overall electricity demand.
Japan’s emissions fell by 45 million tonnes, or 4.3 percent, as output from recently restarted nuclear reactors increased.
However, emissions in the rest of the world increased by nearly 400 million tonnes, with almost 80 percent of the growth coming from Asia, where coal-fired power generation continued to rise.
China’s emissions rose, but were tempered by slowing economic growth, and gains in renewable energy and nuclear power.
India saw a slight reduction in power-sector emissions that were offset by increases from transport.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS