| 英文摘要: | Global energy sector emissions have stalled. But urgent questions remain about the best way to tackle climate change. Emissions of CO2 from the energy sector plateaued in 2014, according to new figures from the International Energy Agency1. It's the first time in 40 years that emissions have failed to rise in the absence of an economic crisis. The UK's Financial Times, which first reported the story, said the data shows “that efforts to tackle climate change may have been more effective than thought”2. But without further efforts to significantly cut emissions, 2014 will be little more than a blip in an otherwise alarming trend. The IEA's Executive Director, Maria van der Hoeven, said in a statement that “this is no time for complacency — and certainly not the time to use this positive news as an excuse to stall further action”1. Indeed, the IPCC identifies a 'carbon budget' that implies around two-thirds of the world's known fossil fuel reserves will have to remain unburned if the world is going to have a 'decent' chance of avoiding warming of more than 2 °C (ref. 3). Once non-energy sector emissions are included in the calculation, the budget implies a global emissions cut across all sectors of about 40 to 70% from 2010 levels by 20504. There are still fundamental questions remaining about how the world can achieve those cuts. The media's obsession with trying to explain who or what was responsible for 2014's stall — with prevalent theories being reduced consumption in China and continual growth in renewable energy capacity in OECD countries — shows that measuring emissions remains integral to transparent climate policy. But disagreements remain about how best to calculate emissions. Whether countries should be held to account for greenhouse-gas emissions originating within their borders, or take additional responsibility for those embedded in their imports, remains a source of debate. In this issue, Astrid Kander and colleagues suggest a further measurement, tweaking consumption based emissions estimates to allow for technological advances. They show how carbon accounting choices have the potential to redraw the emissions map (p 431).
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- Global energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide stalled in 2014. IEA (13 March 2015); http://go.nature.com/YuZYhh
- Clarke, P. Clobal carbon emissions stall in 2014. Financial Times (12 March 2015); http://go.nature.com/AFac6a
- McGlade, C. & Ekins, P. Nature 517, 187–190 (2015).
- IPCC Summary for Policymakers in Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (eds Pachauri, R., Meyer, L. & Core Writing Team) (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014).
- Rusbridger, A. The argument for divesting from fossil fuels is becoming overwhelming. The Guardian (16 March 2015); http://go.nature.com/a5Ox97
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