Here’s an interesting statistic that I had not read about previously!
The editorial section of the Wall Street Journal points out that the United States reduced CO2 emissions by 1.8 percent from 2005 to 2006. And this was at the same time that the economy grew by 2.9 percent.
Here is their decidedly conservative take on the numbers, along with some interesting stats about Europe compared to the US.
It’s the first time since 1990, when the U.N. began counting these things, that the U.S. has reduced emissions without also suffering a recession.
Critics immediately pointed to the Energy Department’s acknowledgment that the reductions were in part due to higher energy prices and favorable weather. But greater use of lower-carbon energy sources, including natural gas, also played a big role. The U.S. reduction also suggests that letting markets work through higher prices will reduce carbon emissions more than the cap and trade mandates favored by environmental lobbies and most Democrats.
The EU hasn’t yet released figures for 2006. But from 2000 to 2005, the U.S. outperformed Western Europe. Carbon emissions were up 3.8% in the so-called EU-15 during those years, versus 2.5% in the U.S. Over the same period, there has been virtually no difference between the increase in all greenhouse emissions in the U.S. and EU-15.
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