The Patriot Post® · Don't Blame U.S. for Rising Carbon Emissions

“Global CO₂ emissions from energy in 2017 grew by 1.6%,” a new BP report reveals, “rebounding from the stagnant volumes during 2014-2016, and faster than the 10-year average of 1.3%.” No doubt climate alarmists will latch onto this new report to foment outrage and chicanery. But there’s one major nation against which their anger shouldn’t be directed: the U.S. According to the report:

Declines were led by the US (-0.5%). This is the ninth time in this century that the US has had the largest decline in emissions in the world. This also was the third consecutive year that emissions in the US declined, though the fall was the smallest over the last three years. Carbon emissions from energy use from the US are the lowest since 1992. … The largest increase in carbon emissions in 2017 came from China (1.6%), a reversal from the past three years when the largest increases in emissions came from India. … The next highest increment came from India where emissions rose by 4.4%, though lower than its 10-year average (6% p.a.). Together, China and India accounted for nearly half of the increase in global carbon emissions. EU emissions were also up (1.5%) with just Spain accounting for 44% of the increase in EU emissions.

Investor’s Businesses Daily relays other relevant info, “The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest energy report notes that, from 2005 to 2017, U.S. energy related emissions of carbon dioxide plunged by 861 million metric tons, a 14% drop. It’s both a result of the decline due to the Great Recession and the fracking revolution. … Over the same period, how did the rest of the world do? Emissions rose by 21% to 6.04 billion metric tons over the 12 years, mostly due to booming economic growth in India and China, where coal-fired energy output continues to expand. The truth, and it’s proven by the hard data, is that CO2 made in the USA will not choke the world to death or cause it to massively overheat. And you can thank capitalism for that.”

The American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry adds, “For that impressive ‘greening’ of America, we can thank the underground oceans of America’s natural gas that are now accessible because of the revolutionary, advanced drilling and extraction technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal/directional drilling, and are increasingly displacing coal for the nation’s electricity generation.” The climate alarmists’ carbon-emissions ire is just as misdirected as their global warming dogma and Paris climate accord advocacy are foolish.