Emissions from Energy Have Slowest Gain Since 2009 Drop, BP Says

Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use had the slowest growth last year since a drop in 2009 as Chinese consumption of coal flattened, according to BP Plc.

Output of the greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels rose 0.5 percent from the previous year, London-based BP said Wednesday in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy.  That was the smallest increase for any year since 1998, with the exception of 2009, when emissions fell 1.5 percent, it said.

Chinese energy consumption rose 2.6 percent, the least since 1998, while nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development had a larger-than-average decline.

United Nations climate envoys meeting in Bonn are this week seeking to hone down a negotiation text for the world’s first global climate accord to limit emissions.  Repsol SA on Tuesday joined six other European oil companies in calling for governments to reach agreement on carbon pricing at a summit planned for December.

The slower growth of heat-trapping gases last year relative to the 10-year average stemmed largely from the changing pace and pattern of economic expansion in China, BP said in an e-mailed statement.

Renewable energy sources, in power generation as well as transportation, continued to increase in 2014 and reached a record 3 percent of global energy consumption, up from 0.9 percent a decade ago.

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