Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use grew by just 0.5% in 2014, the slowest growth rate since the economic crisis in 2009, oil producer BP said on Wednesday.
Excluding the exceptional blip in 2009, last year’s growth rate was the slowest since 1998, the company said in its annual statistical review of world energy, a widely referenced source.
BP said this was mainly due to “the changing pace and pattern of Chinese economic growth”, as the world’s biggest emitter aims to rebalance its economy away from energy-intensive heavy industries into higher value services.
This also caused global primary energy consumption to slow markedly to just 0.9% in 2014, a lower rate than at any time since the late 1990s apart from 2009 and well below the 10-year average of 2.1%.
Renewables were the fastest growing form of energy, accounting for one third of the increase in overall primary energy use despite accounting for only 3% of total primary energy demand.
The review also showed that the US overtook Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer and surpassed Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.
CO2 GROWERS AND CUTTERS
In absolute terms, China increased its emissions the most, accounting for 157Mt of the world’s total year-on-year growth of 187Mt, according to the BP data. Germany, Ukraine, Japan and the UK were the biggest absolute cutters in 2014, all reducing their output by more than 40Mt each.
In percentage terms, Turkmenistan (+15.7%), Vietnam (+12.3%) and Qatar (+9.1%) grew their emissions the most, while Ukraine (-18%), Slovakia (-11.3%) and Switzerland (-10.5%) were the biggest reducers.
Below is a table of the world’s largest energy-related CO2 emitters according to BP, listed by country, region, continent and OECD membership. Columns include millions of tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2014, % share of global total, absolute and % change over 2013, and absolute and & change over 2005.
| 2014 | 2013-14 | 2005-14 | ||||
| MtCO2 | Gbl Share | Abs.Chg | %Chg | Abs.Chg | %Chg | |
| US | 5,994.6 | 16.9% | 53.2 | 0.9% | -500.4 | -7.7% |
| Canada | 620.5 | 1.7% | 0.7 | 0.1% | -15.5 | -2.4% |
| N.AMERICA | 7,114.9 | 20.0% | 46.5 | 0.7% | -487.0 | -6.4% |
| Brazil | 581.7 | 1.6% | 22.7 | 4.1% | 198.3 | 51.7% |
| S&C.AMERICA | 1,486.6 | 4.2% | 22.2 | 1.5% | 392.0 | 35.8% |
| EU | 3,705.0 | 10.4% | -210.9 | -5.4% | -832.8 | -18.4% |
| France | 347.5 | 1.0% | -33.1 | -8.7% | -85.9 | -19.8% |
| Germany | 798.6 | 2.2% | -47.4 | -5.6% | -81.4 | -9.2% |
| Italy | 347.1 | 1.0% | -30.7 | -8.1% | -151.2 | -30.3% |
| Poland | 316.8 | 0.9% | -12.3 | -3.7% | -1.2 | -0.4% |
| Russia | 1,657.2 | 4.7% | -25.8 | -1.5% | 62.7 | 3.9% |
| Turkey | 348.5 | 1.0% | 23.8 | 7.3% | 107.4 | 44.5% |
| UK | 470.8 | 1.3% | -44.0 | -8.5% | -132.8 | -22.0% |
| EUROPE&EURASIA | 6,657.5 | 18.8% | -265.6 | -3.8% | -673.9 | -9.2% |
| Iran | 650.4 | 1.8% | 17.2 | 2.7% | 179.7 | 38.2% |
| Saudi Arabia | 665.0 | 1.9% | 46.9 | 7.6% | 243.5 | 57.8% |
| MID.EAST | 2,227.8 | 6.3% | 88.1 | 4.1% | 703.4 | 46.1% |
| South Africa | 452.2 | 1.3% | 7.6 | 1.7% | 52.1 | 13.0% |
| AFRICA | 1,194.8 | 3.4% | 29.6 | 2.5% | 235.2 | 24.5% |
| Australia | 374.9 | 1.1% | -8.7 | -2.3% | -10.4 | -2.7% |
| China | 9,761.1 | 27.5% | 86.9 | 0.9% | 3,435.0 | 54.3% |
| India | 2,088.0 | 5.9% | 156.9 | 8.1% | 908.0 | 77.0% |
| Indonesia | 548.7 | 1.5% | 18.9 | 3.6% | 190.0 | 53.0% |
| Japan | 1,343.1 | 3.8% | -43.0 | -3.1% | -61.8 | -4.4% |
| South Korea | 768.3 | 2.2% | 0.5 | 0.1% | 166.2 | 27.6% |
| Taiwan | 332.9 | 0.9% | 2.8 | 0.8% | 11.2 | 3.5% |
| Thailand | 346.9 | 1.0% | 12.1 | 3.6% | 90.6 | 35.3% |
| ASIA-PAC. | 16,817.0 | 47.4% | 266.2 | 1.6% | 5,049.7 | 42.9% |
| OECD | 13,770.5 | 38.8% | -202.7 | -1.5% | -1,054.3 | -7.1% |
| NON-OECD | 21,728.2 | 61.2% | 389.5 | 1.8% | 6,273.7 | 40.6% |
| WORLD | 35,498.7 | 100.0% | 186.9 | 0.5% | 5,219.4 | 17.2% |
By Ben Garside and Mike Szabo – news@carbon-pulse.com
