Washington - US carbon emissions have dropped 9 per cent since 2007, the result of not only the recession but also increased efficiency and use of alternative energy sources, a top Washington environmental organization said Wednesday. The Earth Policy Institute drew its conclusions from data released by the US government's Department of Energy (DOE) and on its own data.
"For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not," wrote Lester Brown, who heads the institute, in a report.
He cited gains from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy to explain part of the improvement.
Together, the United States and China produce nearly half of the world's carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Neither country appears ready to make compromises or commitments to reductions ahead of the much-awaited new international agreement to be debated in Copenhagen in December.
Brown cited a "startling" fall in the use of coal and oil.
In 2008, oil use dropped 5 per cent, coal 1 per cent, and carbon emissions by 3 per cent. Estimates for 2009, based on DOE data for the first nine months, show oil use down by another 5 per cent. Coal is set to fall by 10 per cent, Brown said.
Some of the drop has come from a debilitating recession that has dragged down consumer spending and energy use in the past two years.
But Brown said part of the progress came from the administration of US President Barack Obama, which moved immediately within days of taking office in January to write efficiency regulations that had been put off for years by former president George W Bush.
Many of those regulations will improve appliance and car efficiency across the country. At the same time, under Obama, the federal governmentthe largest US energy consumer, with some 500,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles - is setting its own carbon- cutting goals.
Yet landmark legislation that would for the first time force companies to pay for their pollution has stalled in the US Congress. The lack of a bill could tie Obama's hands at the Copenhagen talks.
Brown said that coal plants are closing and wind farms are multiplying. A total of 102 wind farms came online in 2008. US solar cell installations are also growing at 40 per cent a year, Brown said.
As people turn to more public transit, car owners will have scrapped an estimated 14 million cars in 2009, compared to buying only 10 million new cars, Brown said.
