{"id":6471,"date":"2015-10-26T09:27:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T09:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6471"},"modified":"2015-10-26T09:27:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T09:27:01","slug":"falling-carbon-intensity-the-uk-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/10\/26\/falling-carbon-intensity-the-uk-leads\/","title":{"rendered":"Falling Carbon Intensity \u2013 the UK leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that the UK is leading the world in addressing one aspect of climate change. \u00a0This is that the fall in our greenhouse gas emissions per $ of GDP, at 10.9%, is not only the highest in the world in 2014, but also the highest on record. \u00a0This arcane figure is termed \u2018carbon intensity\u2019, and the data come from PriceWaterhouseCooper\u2019s annual Low Carbon Economy Index<\/a>\u00a0*.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the figure for the US is a miserable 1.9%, and Germany, that \u20acuro powerhouse, managed only 7.1%. The average fall across the world was 2.7%. \u00a0PWC reckons, using IPCC data, that it would have to be 6.3% to keep the world temperature rise below 2 degrees C. \u00a0More evidence, then, that this will not be happening.<\/p>\n

The 2.7% fall comes about because the global GDP rose by 3.3% in 2014, while carbon emissions rose by (only) 0.5%. As a result of this, PWC suggests that GDP and emissions have at last become \u201cuncoupled\u201d which, if true, will be some rare good news.<\/p>\n

................................<\/p>\n

* Two degrees of separation: ambition and reality<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0The report begins:<\/p>\n

\"The 2014 Low Carbon Economy Index (LCEI) shows an unmistakeable trend. For the sixth year running, the global economy has missed the decarbonisation target needed to limit global warming to 2 \u030aC. \u00a0Confronted with the challenge in 2013 of decarbonising at 6% a year, we managed only 1.2%. \u00a0To avoid two degrees of warming, the global economy now needs to decarbonise at 6.2% a year, more than five times faster than the current rate, every year from now till 2100. \u00a0On our current burn rate we blow our carbon budget by 2034, sixty six years ahead of schedule. \u00a0This trajectory, based on IPCC data, takes us to four degrees of warming by the end of the century.<\/p>\n

This stark message comes in the run up to a critical series of climate negotiations, kicking off in New York and Lima in late 2014, then moving to Paris by December 2015 for the COP21 Summit, widely thought of as the last chance to secure a global agreement on action on climate change.<\/p>\n

...\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go on, just read that bit again:<\/p>\n

\"To avoid two degrees of warming, the global economy now needs to decarbonise at 6.2% a year\u00a0...\u00a0every year<\/strong><\/em> from now till 2100.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why 'on Earth' isn't everybody talking about this? \u00a0Why isn't it at the heart\u00a0of policy-making?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that the UK is leading the world in addressing one aspect of climate change. \u00a0This is that the fall in our greenhouse gas emissions per $ of GDP, at 10.9%, is not only the highest in the world...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}