From the June 2018 BP Statistical Review of Global Energy (67th edition)
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corpor...cal-review-of-world-energy/co2-emissions.html
Global CO2 emissions grew 1.6% in 2017. The US shrunk its carbon emissions by 0.5% or 42 million tons, the third consecutive year and the 9th time in the 21st century that the US has had the largest decline in emissions. China and India each had massive increases in carbon emissions,.
Surprisingly the European Union also had a growth in global emissions, much of it due to Spain which accounted for 44% of the growth.
A large part of the reason why global emissions are down in the USA is due to the movement towards less expensive sources of domestic energy including natural gas and solar, and a market move away from inefficient coal plants. Before people chime in with "we also don't make anything anymore!", manufacturing is still the top economic sector in America, by far, still providing ~9% of jobs in the country and worth over $6 trillion dollars in gross output.
That chart does deal in absolute numbers and not per capita or anything like that so its possibly unfair to say "well, the US has a huge economy so of course it has a bigger number" but then again global warming is not a thing that cares about per capita, the more CO2 we pump into the air the hotter it gets and the air doesn't really care that China and India have way, way more people living there than in the USA or that the middle class there is slowly beginning to enjoy a modern lifestyle and all the benefits like meat, private cars, luxury goods, etc.
Just thought it was interesting that for all the Paris accord talks (which the US is still part of by the way, there is basically a 2 year withdrawal process which means we officially wouldn't be out until Nov 5th, 2020 a day after the 2020 Presidential elections) the fact remains that
(1) global CO2 emissions are still on the rise and will continue to be so for a while
(2) USA is decreasing CO2 emissions for economic reasons, didn't really need government heavy hand to force it
(3) I was pretty shocked that the EU's CO2 emissions keep rising, I thought they were at the forefront of the green revolution
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corpor...cal-review-of-world-energy/co2-emissions.html
Global CO2 emissions grew 1.6% in 2017. The US shrunk its carbon emissions by 0.5% or 42 million tons, the third consecutive year and the 9th time in the 21st century that the US has had the largest decline in emissions. China and India each had massive increases in carbon emissions,.
Surprisingly the European Union also had a growth in global emissions, much of it due to Spain which accounted for 44% of the growth.
A large part of the reason why global emissions are down in the USA is due to the movement towards less expensive sources of domestic energy including natural gas and solar, and a market move away from inefficient coal plants. Before people chime in with "we also don't make anything anymore!", manufacturing is still the top economic sector in America, by far, still providing ~9% of jobs in the country and worth over $6 trillion dollars in gross output.
That chart does deal in absolute numbers and not per capita or anything like that so its possibly unfair to say "well, the US has a huge economy so of course it has a bigger number" but then again global warming is not a thing that cares about per capita, the more CO2 we pump into the air the hotter it gets and the air doesn't really care that China and India have way, way more people living there than in the USA or that the middle class there is slowly beginning to enjoy a modern lifestyle and all the benefits like meat, private cars, luxury goods, etc.
Just thought it was interesting that for all the Paris accord talks (which the US is still part of by the way, there is basically a 2 year withdrawal process which means we officially wouldn't be out until Nov 5th, 2020 a day after the 2020 Presidential elections) the fact remains that
(1) global CO2 emissions are still on the rise and will continue to be so for a while
(2) USA is decreasing CO2 emissions for economic reasons, didn't really need government heavy hand to force it
(3) I was pretty shocked that the EU's CO2 emissions keep rising, I thought they were at the forefront of the green revolution
