Crunch time for carbon reduction
After remaining flat for three years, total global CO2 emissions in 2017 rose by 1.4%, dashing hopes that they had peaked. Indeed, energy sector carbon emissions will rise in 2018, according to Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), who warned that the aim of keeping global warming at “well below“ 2 °C and at 1.5 °C if possible was unlikely to be achieved: “the chances of meeting such ambitious targets, in my view, are becoming weaker and weaker every year, every month“.