This is very big news!
The International Energy Agency indicated in a preliminary statement that emissions of carbon dioxide from the world’s power sector accelerated less in 2014 than the global economy. While recession has caused this phenomenon several times in the past (the early 1980s, 1992, and 2009), for the first time in 40 years we are now experiencing a relative reduction in emissions during a time of economic gains.
*
The figures were first published by The Financial Times in an interview with Chief Economist Fatih Birol, who will succeed Maria van der Hoeven as executive director of the agency. He said:
“This is both a very welcome surprise and a significant one. [It] gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change, the most important threat facing us today…. For the first time, greenhouse gas emissions are decoupling from economic growth.”
Read more at How Big a Deal is Economic-Energy CO2 Decoupling?
