ECONOMY SLOWS BUT NOT EMISSIONS

Led by China, carbon pollution up despite economy
Seth Borenstein, November 17, 2009 (AP)

"Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study…[by] Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia…Worldwide emissions rose 671 million more tons from 2007 to 2008. Nearly three-quarters of that increase came from China.

"The numbers are from the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and published in the journal Nature Geoscience…According to the study, the 2008 emissions increase was smaller than normal for this decade. Annual global pollution growth has averaged 3.6 percent. This year, scientists are forecasting a nearly 3 percent reduction, despite China because of the massive economic slowdown in most of the world and in the United States."

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"The U.S. is still the biggest per capita major producer of man-made greenhouse gases, spewing about 20 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year. The world average is 5.3 tons and China is at 5.8 tons…Last year, the U.S. emissions fell by 3 percent…Overall European Union emissions dropped by 1 percent. The U.S. is still the No. 2 biggest carbon polluter overall, emitting more than the next four largest polluting countries combined: India, Russia, Japan and Germany. China has been No. 1, since pushing past the United States in 2006…

"The world remains on a dangerous path, despite the recession, scientists said…The world has spewed 715.3 trillion tons of industrial carbon dioxide since 1982, which is the same amount civilization produced in all the previous years…Outside scientists said the study was thorough and the results sobering…The report comes as countries from around the world prepare for a December U.N. conference on reducing carbon emissions…[President] Obama, who was in China, said after a meeting with President Hu Jintao…he wanted an all-encompassing agreement in Copenhagen, even if it falls short of a legal treaty…"

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"Le Quere said the numbers point specifically to developing world as the cause for the most recent growth…China is opening up new coal-fired power plants at a breakneck pace and carbon dioxide emissions in that country have doubled since 2001…Not all the emission increases in China and other developing countries come from new power plants. About one-quarter of the emissions growth is because western countries, like the United States, buy more manufactured products from those countries…

"Other countries beside China to increase their carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5 million tons in 2008 were India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Poland, Mexico, Canada and the Netherlands…The paper also raised concerns because it shows that the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions that hang in the air — compared to those sucked into the oceans and forests — [has grown in the last 50 years from 40% to 45%]…[T]he more carbon dioxide in the air, the warmer it gets, and the warmer it gets, the higher percentage of carbon dioxide stays in the air…It's a feedback loop that is not good news for global warming…"