US 2011 Carbon Output Down, But China Erased Gains; IEA's Birol: On Track For 6C By 2100

[hatrack]

EDIT

How did the United States managed to restrain its carbon-dioxide? The IEA offers up three reasons for the decline: First, many U.S. power companies have been swapping out coal for somewhat cleaner natural gas, since the latter has become so cheap. That’s helped. The United States also had a mild winter in 2011, which meant less energy was needed for heating. Finally, Americans have been driving less and purchasing more efficient cars of late, which has tempered the country’s oil use. It wasn’t a huge drop. It may prove fleeting. But it was a step toward less carbon.

Still, that step hasn’t been enough to stop the relentless rise in carbon emissions elsewhere in the world. All told, wealthy countries reduced their emissions 0.6 percent last year. But developing countries saw their emissions grow 6.1 percent. China was the biggest contributor, with carbon dioxide output growing 9.3 percent — thanks in large part to a rise in coal consumption. Now we can see why environmentalists are so leery of having the United States export more of its coal to countries like China.

As a result, the IEA expects we’re in for a hot future. Remember, leaders from the world’s nations have all pledged to try to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Otherwise, the world risks severe droughts, floods, sea-level rises, food shortage, and all sorts of unmanageable nastiness. (Here’s a primer on why many scientists and politicians think 2°C is a good target to shoot for.)

Those climate goals look increasingly out of reach. “The new data provide further evidence that the door to a 2°C trajectory is about to close,” said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol. Instead, says Birol, we’re on a trajectory to heat the planet by about 6°C by the end of the century. For those who prefer Fahrenheit, that’s about 11°F. It’s a big jump. Last year, Birol said that “even schoolchildren know this will have catastrophic implications for all of us.”

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-us-cut-its-carbon-emissions-in-2011--but-got-swamped-by-china/2012/05/25/gJQAiZEBqU_blog.html

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Global Temperatures Rising on a Devastating Trajectory

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107928

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Global Temperatures Rising on a Devastating Trajectory[/font]

By Stephen Leahy

[font size=4]UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 25, 2012 (IPS) - Climate-heating carbon emissions set a record high in 2011, in a 3.2 percent increase over the previous year, the International Energy Agency reported this week. The main reason for this dangerous increase is that governments are failing to implement policies to prevent catastrophic increases of global temperatures.[/font]

[font size=3]
A new report released on the last days of international climate talks in Bonn, Germany this week reveals that the planet is heading to a temperature rise of at least 3.5 degrees Celsius, and likely more, according to the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), despite an international agreement to keep global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius.

Not only are pledges inadequate, but countries are unable to fulfill even those pledges, a new CAT analysis shows. CAT is a joint project of Dutch energy consulting organisation Ecofys, Germany's Climate Analytics, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

"When we compared the emission reduction pledges of countries like Brazil, Mexico and the U.S., we found they did not have the policies in place to meet those pledges," said Niklas Höhne, director of energy and climate policy at Ecofys.

…[/font][/font]

[Warren Stupidity]

2. "even school children know" which is why the obstruction is criminal. NT.