A surprising new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday suggests that greenhouse gas emissions have dropped, a slight improvement seen in the worsening climate change, amid a growing economy in 2015.
The new study, done by The Global Carbon Project, is a result of tracking greenhouse gas emissions in more than a decade.
ABC News, in its report, said that following the stabilization of emissions in 2014, a slight drop has been observed in 2015, a shocking improvement that has been seen for the first time since the global financial crisis. According to Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, while there was an increase of 3 percent in the economic growth, there was a corresponding 0.5 percent drop in the greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr. Pep Canadell added that this is the first time that the worsening climate change and the economic progress have become inversely related. "What we found in these past two years has not really been observed before," he said.
For the past decade, an average increase of 2.4 percent each year had been observed in the emissions, to which 90 percent is caused by the use of fossil fuels.
Dr. Canadell, however, warned that the slight drop in the emissions may not mean the world has changed its attitude and perspective towards climate change.
He said, "I think we will see emissions resuming in the very near future. What I think it's a sign of is, that we may be moving away from the very fast growth in emissions over the past 15 years, to a slower growth in global emissions."
Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia in the U.K., who spearheaded the study's data analysis, noted that China will definitely have a hand in sustaining the decline in the greenhouse gas emissions, saying (via International Business Times), "Whether a slower growth in global emissions will be sustained depends on the use of coal in China and elsewhere, and where new energy will come from."
"In 2014, more than half of new energy needs in China were met from renewable sources such as hydro, nuclear, wind, and solar power," Le Quere added.
