Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2012 report

TLDR

The report aims to contextualize global CO₂ trends by assessing cumulative emissions over the last decade and comparing them with scientific analyses of emissions relative to the 2 °C target adopted in the UN climate negotiations. It evaluates annual CO₂ emission changes from 2010 to 2011, incorporating fossil fuel combustion and additional sources such as flaring, cement clinker production, limestone use, feedstock, and other small sources, and presents regional and country‑level trends alongside underlying fossil fuel, non‑fossil energy, and other source trends. The assessment updates the 2011 global CO₂ trend analysis and offers a more detailed discussion of uncertainty in national and global emission estimates compared with the previous report.

Abstract

This report discusses the results of a trend assessment of global CO2 emissions up to 2011 and updates last year's assessment. This assessment focusses on the changes in annual CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2011, and includes not only fossil fuel combustion on which the BP reports are based, but also incorporates all other relevant CO2 emissions sources including flaring of waste gas during oil production, cement clinker production and other limestone uses, feedstock and other non-energy uses of fuels, and several other small sources. After a short description of the methods used (Chapter 2), we first present a summary of recent CO2 emission trends, by region and by country, and of the underlying trend of fossil fuel use, non-fossil energy and of other CO2 sources (Chapter 3). To provide a broader context of the global trends we also assess the cumulative global CO2 emissions of the last decade, i.e. since 2000, and compare it with scientific literature that analyse global emissions in relation to the target of 2C maximum global warming in the 21st century, which was adopted in the UN climate negotiations (Chapter 4). Compared to last year's report, Annex 1 includes a more detailed and updated discussion of the uncertainty in national and global CO2 emission estimates.