The rapid growth in global carbon dioxide emissions over the last decade appears to have stalled, a new study says. Early estimates suggest that global emissions will decrease by 0.6% this year, following a small increase of 0.6% in 2014. The break in the emissions trend is mainly down to a drop in coal use in China , the study says, which drives a projected decrease in Chinese emissions of around 4% compared to 2014. However, this is unlikely to signal a peak in global emissions just yet, the researchers say. Stalled emissions Last month , the World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO) announced that the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere passed 400 parts per million (ppm) in spring this year. This is an increase from around 280ppm since the industrial revolution began, and is higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years. Humans continue to […]