David Victor's Research on the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanisms Cited
World emissions rise, carbon markets fail
06/05/2011
Simon Butler,
Green Left
Global greenhouse gas emissions rose faster than ever last year and the market-based schemes set up to bring emissions down are in trouble.
That's the bad news from two recent reports by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank.
The IEA said emissions in 2010 were 5% higher than 2008, the previous highest year. It estimated that about 44% of the emissions came from coal, 36% from oil and 20% from natural gas.
It also said 80% of projected emissions from energy generation in 2020 "are already locked in as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today".
IEA chief economist Faith Birol said on May 30: "This significant increase in CO2 emissions and the locking in of future emissions due to infrastructure investments represent a serious setback to our hopes of limiting the global rise in temperature to no more than 2ºC."
To stay below 2°C, the IEA said emissions had to rise by less in the next 10 years than they had in the past 12 months.
"The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2ºC target is to be attained," said Birol.
Click here to read the full article.
Related Links
David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.
