Carbon Dioxide Emissions Are Up Again. What Now, Climate?

"As climate negotiators from around the world meet in Poland this week and next to figure out how to keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, they are hearing some discouraging news: Emissions of the biggest pollutant, carbon dioxide, are going up."

"For three years — 2014 through 2016 — the amount of atmospheric CO2 had leveled off. But it started to climb again in 2017, and is still rising."

"'Last year, we thought, was a blip — but it isn't,' says Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University in California."

The CO2 increase in 2017 over the previous year was 1.6 percent, and in 2018 it's looking like emissions will have grown a further 2.7 percent. With the economy strong throughout most of the world, 2019 looks to be headed in the same direction, in terms of carbon emissions. 

"The recent slowdown in emissions and the subsequent uptick are both largely the result of what's been happening in China."

"'Their economy has been slowing a bit,' says Jackson, which is one reason global emissions stalled (China is the largest emitter of CO2 in the world). But now, says Jackson, 'the government is trying to boost growth, and they're green-lighting some coal projects that had been on hold.'"