ENVIRONMENT: 2018 carbon emissions highest in 7 years

 The BP  oil giant reported on Tuesday, June 11   that carbon dioxide emissions rose 2.0% worldwide in 2018  the biggest increase in seven years.

The report is disturbing news for the fight against climate change as the increase will lead to more expensive measures to reduce it.  This is the most important increase recorded since 2010-2011, explains the British group.

“There is a growing gap between the demand for action against climate change in our societies and the progress made in this area, with energy demand and carbon emissions at their highest level in years,” said Spencer Dale, economist boss of BP.

The group is concerned that the more emissions increase, the more expensive it becomes to take the necessary measures to reduce them.

This trend could compromise the chances of success of the Paris Agreement on the climate of 2015, whose objective is to limit global warming to + 2 ° C or even 1.5 ° C above the level prior to the industrial revolution.

According to experts from the United Nations, it is materially possible to achieve this 1.5 ° C goal by changing our way of life, energy systems, and transport networks.

Global energy demand increased by 2.9%, according to the BP report. And although consumption and production of renewable energy increased by 14.5%, close to the record set in 2017, they only accounted for one- third of the total increase in demand.

And is that natural gas increased by 5% in 2018, one of the highest rates in 30 years. Coal consumption grew (+ 1.4%), as did its production (+ 4.3%), for the second consecutive year, despite the fact that it had fallen between 2014 and 2016.