Are CO2 Emissions Going Down?

Stalled CO2 Emissions in 2014?

Picture Credit: news.stanford.edu

Findings released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in mid-March this year (2015) show that for the first time in 40 years, the global carbon dioxide emissions stalled in 2014. There was no climb in emissions, which means we may be reducing our global emissions, but scientists say differently.

According to some scientists, the overall carbon emissions are still continuing to rise and that these findings are only from one data point. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has data showing there were 7 different decreases in emissions from the U.S. in the past 23 years, but this doesn't account for the emissions of rapidly developing countries. Thomas Peterson, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climate Data Center states that it's not as simple as to look at one year because there are so many other factors affecting climate change besides carbon dioxide emissions.

Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for at least hundreds of years, so we cannot predict CO2 levels by a yearly basis. We would need to start seeing continual decreases in emissions globally for many, many years to maybe see a difference in climate change. 

Source: http://www.livescience.com/50182-2014-co2-emissions-stabilized.html