Update on CO2 emissions

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Nature Geoscience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1022· OSTI ID:1015075

Friedingstein, P ^[1]; Houghton, R A ^[2]; Marland, Gregg ^[3]; Hackler, J ^[2]; Boden, Thomas A ^[3]; Conway, T J ^[4]; Canadell, J G ^[5]; Raupach, Mike ^[6]; Ciais, Philippe ^[7]; Le Quere, Corrine ^[8]

---

1. University of Exeter, Devon, England
2. Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA
3. ORNL
4. NOAA, Boulder, CO
5. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
6. GCP, Canberra, Australia
7. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environement, France
8. University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Emissions of CO2 are the main contributor to anthropogenic climate change. Here we present updated information on their present and near-future estimates. We calculate that global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning decreased by 1.3% in 2009 owing to the global financial and economic crisis that started in 2008; this is half the decrease anticipated a year ago1. If economic growth proceeds as expected2, emissions are projected to increase by more than 3% in 2010, approaching the high emissions growth rates that were observed from 2000 to 20081, 3, 4. We estimate that recent CO2 emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes (LUCs) have declined compared with the 1990s, primarily because of reduced rates of deforestation in the tropics5 and a smaller contribution owing to forest regrowth elsewhere.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1015075
• Journal Information: Nature Geoscience, Journal Name: Nature Geoscience Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 3; ISSN 1752-0894
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
DEFORESTATION
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ECONOMICS
FORESTS
FOSSIL FUELS
LAND USE