Rapid growth in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry ceased in the past two years, despite continued economic growth. Decreased coal use in China was largely responsible, coupled with slower global growth in petroleum and faster growth in renewables.
References
January–June 2015 Hottest on Record: NOAA (World Meteorological Organization, accessed 1 September 2015); http://go.nature.com/5yynV1
Friedlingstein, P. et al. Nature Geosci. 7, 709–715 (2014).
Jackson, R. B., Friedlingstein, P., Canadell, J. G. & Andrew, R. M. The Bridge 45, 16–21 (2015).
Le Quéré et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 7, 349–396 (2015).
Statistical Review of World Energy 2015 (BP, 2015); http://go.nature.com/KxRNK9
Pacala, S. & Socolow, R. Science 305, 968–972 (2004).
Global Wind Report Annual Market Update 2014 (Global Wind Energy Council, accessed 21 August 2015); http://go.nature.com/soCk1e
Snapshot of Global PV Markets 2014 (International Energy Agency, accessed 21 August, 2015); http://go.nature.com/9BFh4O
Smith, P. et al. Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) Ch. 11 (IPCC, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).
Federici, S. et al. Forest Ecol. Manage. 352, 89–98 (2015).
Achard, F. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 20, 2540–2554 (2014).
Davis, S. J. & Socolow, R. H. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 084018 (2014).
Peters, G. P. et al. Nature Clim. Change 2, 2–4 (2012).
Adjusting to Lower Commodity Prices (International Monetary Fund, accessed 10 October 2015); http://go.nature.com/YAbczX
National Bureau of Statistics of China. 2015 China Statistical Yearbook (China Statistics Press, 2015).
Liu, Z. et al. Nature 524, 335–338 (2015).
National Bureau of Statistics of China. China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2014 (China Statistics Press, 2015).
Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Solomon, S. & Friedlingstein, P. Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 105004 (2015).
Energy from Renewable Resources (European Commission, accessed 20 October 2015); http://go.nature.com/f4IGkb
Acknowledgements
This work is a collaborative effort of the Global Carbon Project, part of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and Future Earth, to provide regular analyses of the main global carbon emissions and sinks (www.globalcarbonproject.org). The authors wish to thank the US Carbon Cycle Science Program and Stanford University (R.B.J.), the Australian Climate Change Science Program (J.G.C.), Research Council of Norway projects 236296 and 209701 (R.M.A., J.I.K. and G.P.P.), and the UK Natural Environment Research Council International Opportunities Fund (NE/103002X/1) (C.L.Q.) for their support. We thank the Jackson lab for comments on the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 849 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jackson, R., Canadell, J., Le Quéré, C. et al. Reaching peak emissions. Nature Clim Change 6, 7–10 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2892
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2892
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Impacts of COVID-19 and fiscal stimuli on global emissions and the Paris Agreement
Nature Climate Change (2021)
-
Engineering rhizobacteria for sustainable agriculture
The ISME Journal (2021)
-
Challenges and opportunities for carbon neutrality in China
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2021)
-
China CO2 emission accounts 2016–2017
Scientific Data (2020)
-
Embodied carbon emissions in the supply chains of multinational enterprises
Nature Climate Change (2020)