Peak carbon emissions?

From Tristan Edis, who is a shining light amid the rentier gloom at Dad’s Army:

…on Friday…the International Energy Agency revealed that global emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector stalled in 2014, while the global economy grew by 3%. This marks the first time in the IEA’s 40 years of collecting data on carbon dioxide emissions where emissions stood still or declined while the economy grew…coal is well and truly in decline (it would be more so were it not for the Fukushima nuclear disaster).

The chart below tracks China annual change in coal demand relative to the OECD and the rest of the world over the past decade. Thanks almost entirely to China, global coal demand grew by 50% over the decade to 2013, while it would have been stagnant without China.

This has all become readily apparent because last year China’s demand for more coal came to an abrupt halt, and instead dropped by 2.9%.

I am more confident than Tristan on this. China is pursuing and “anything but coal” reform agenda that will only get stronger as grass-roots unrest about air pollution strengthens. It’s still difficult to say whether the global carbon emissions peak has passed in but it sure looks possible.