New report: CO2 emissions do not increase at the same rapid rate

Carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase - but the 2019 increase is not as great as last year. This is according to a report from the Global Carbon Project research project presented at the Madrid climate summit. 2018 increase was 2.1 percent, while 2019 increase is expected to land at 0.6 percent and emissions for the year are expected to be 37 billion tonnes. Explanations of the decline are that the US and Europe use coal power to a lesser extent and that China's economy has slowed down.

Renewable energy is growing exponentially, but this growth has so far been too low to offset the growth in fossil energy consumption.

Global fossil CO2 emissions are projected to rise by 0.6% in 2019 [range: -0.2% to +1.5%] The global growth is driven by the underlying changes at the country level.

Share of global fossil CO2 emissions in 2018: coal (40%), oil (34%), gas (20%), cement (4%), flaring (1%, not shown)

Renewable energy is growing exponentially, but this growth has so far been too low to offset the growth in fossil energy consumption.

Source: CDIAC; Peters et al 2019; Friedlingstein et al 2019; Global Carbon Budget 2019