Recession-driven global carbon reduction on the rebound

 While carbon dioxide emissions in emerging and developing countries  continued to grow up to 3.3 percent in 2009, led by Asia and the Middle East, emissions of industrialized countries fell 6.5 percent - putting them at 6.4 percent below their 1990 collective level, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA)

Most of the reduction, however, comes from a decrease in the energy consumption due to the 2008-2009 economic crisis, according to the CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion report.

Statistics for 2009 show that emission levels for the group of countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol were just shy 14.7 percent below their 1990 level.

Global CO2 emissions actually decreased 1.5 percent between 2008 and 2009.  Early indications suggest that CO2 emissions trends in developing countries in 2010 will continue to increase, through growing consumption of fossil fuels in some of the larger countries.

The trend of emissions in developed countries will rebound in 2010 and CO2 emissions will likely be at a similar level to 2008, before the recent financial crisis and the slowdown in economic activity, the IEA report says.

According to a report from the European Joint Research Centre, published in September, global carbon dioxide emissions increased 5.8 percent between 2009 and 2010.