Global carbon emissions projected to decline in 2015

Global carbon emissions grew in 2014 by just 0.6 per cent. This year emissions could decline by 0.6 per cent, according to researchers of the Global Carbon Project. The results appeared on December 7 in the online journal Earth System Science Data. Lead author is Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia.

„The results mark a break with the rapid emissions growth of 2.4 per cent per year of the previous decade from 2004 to 2013, though it is unclear whether this trend will continue in the future“, says Dr. Judith Hauck, marine biogeoscientist from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research who played an active part in the current study. In addition, the projection for 2015 is an estimate and there will always be a range of uncertainty.

Further results are that the ocean sink removed 10.7 billion tons of carbon emissions while the land sink exhibited one of the largest sink of the past 60 years removing 15.0 billion tons. Consequently, the atmospheric CO2 accumulation was below average.

The atmospheric CO2 levels have reached 400 parts per million in 2015, 44 per cent above pre-industrial levels. This is the highest level in at least the last 800.000 years.