“The decrease in emissions follows the decrease in the global economy. This is not unexpected”, said Gennar Myhre, a senior research fellow and one of the scientists behind the first peer-reviewed paper that estimated emissions in 2009.
Emissions from oil and gas decreased, but emissions from coal remain stable, the report says.
The paper also states that China is now responsible for 24 percent of the global fossil emissions of carbon dioxide last year. The authors speculate that there was an increase in the countries’ emissions because, unlike developed countries, China and India were hit by a lesser extent by the global financial crisis.
When a country experiences a large boom in the economy, there is usually a shift towards services and lower emissions relative to the gross domestic product. However, this was not the case in China.
China’s emissions reportedly increased more than what would be expected given the country’s exponential economic growth. Glen Peters, another senior research fellow at the research center, cited China’s large investments in infrastructure and export production as reasons for the emission increase.
“When China invests in roads or buildings, this causes large emissions, as industries like cement and steel industries are very emission-intensive”, Mr. Peters explained.
China also has a large export sector, and although exports initially dropped during the financial crisis, the sector quickly recovered.
“Due to large exports, China doesn’t only benefit from its own stimulus package, but also from stimulus packages in other countries”, said Mr. Peters.
