WASHINGTON — Pollution typically declines in a recession. Not this time.
Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon-dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday.
“The growth in emissions since 2000 is almost entirely driven by the growth in China,” said study lead author Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia. “It’s China and India and all the developing countries together.”
Emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief man-made greenhouse gas, come from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas and also from the production of cement, which is a significant pollution factor in China. Worldwide emissions rose by 671 million tons from 2007 to 2008. Nearly three-quarters of that increase came from China.
The numbers are from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
According to the study, the 2008 emissions increase was smaller than normal for this decade. Annual global pollution growth has averaged 3.6 percent. This year, scientists forecast a nearly 3 percent reduction despite China because of the massive economic slowdown in most of the world and in the United States.
The U.S. is still the biggest per-capita major producer of man-made greenhouse gases, spewing about 20 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year. The world average is 5.3 tons, and China is at 5.8 tons Last year, U.S. emissions fell 3 percent, a drop of nearly 192 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The report comes as countries from around the world prepare for a U.N. conference next month on reducing carbon emissions. Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen of Denmark, who will host the conference in Copenhagen, said Tuesday that President Barack Obama supported his proposal for a sweeping political deal that would include commitments by industrial countries to reduce carbon emissions and to provide funds for less-developed countries to fight the effects of global warming.
Obama, who is visiting China, said after a meeting Tuesday with President Hu Jintao that he wanted an all- encompassing agreement in Copenhagen, even if it falls short of a legal treaty. And he said he wants something “that has immediate operational effect.”
