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Charts: The extraordinary decoupling between economic growth and carbon pollution is happening
September 28, 2016
Producing more stuff takes more energy. Using more energy means more pollution. That statement would once have seemed like common sense.
Because most of our energy has historically come from fossil fuels, rising economic growth has gone hand in hand with higher carbon emissions. But in 2014, something extraordinary happened. Globally, carbon emissions decoupled from GDP growth.