'Holy smoke!' - did China's carbon emissions just fall?

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arlier this year, many of us who follow such things were astounded by news that global CO2 emissions might have actually stalled last year.

Now, comes news via the Greenpeace Energy Desk that Chinese carbon emissions may have fallen 5% in the first four months of this year.

If true, this is very big news indeed. In fact, a drop of that magnitude would—according to Greenpeace—be the equivalent of the UK's entire emissions output.

I'm not sure many of us saw this coming. While there's been plenty of evidence that China is ramping up an impressive commitment to clean tech and a lower carbon future, the much heralded China US climate pact of last year had Chinese CO2 emissions peaking around 2030. (As critics of the deal never tired of reminding us).

Read Sami Grover’s story on Treehugger - “Holy smokes! Did China's CO2 emissions actually just fall?”