IEA: Developed Countries' CO2 Emissions Will Rise

The world’s advanced economies will see an uptick in their carbon dioxide emissions this year, reversing a five year-long declining trend, according to the International Energy Agency.
Based on the latest available energy data, energy-related CO2 emissions in North America, the European Union and other advanced economies in Asia Pacific grew, as higher oil and gas use more than offset declining coal consumption. As a result, the IEA expects CO2 emissions in these economies to increase by around 0.5% in 2018, Trade Arabia reported.
Although the growth in emissions is lower than the 2.4% rise in economic growth, it is particularly worrisome for global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement. 
Countries met at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland to make efforts to limit emissions. 
The IEA also expects emerging economies to emit more CO2 than last year. The IEA’s full global energy and CO2 data for 2018 will be released next March, but all indications point to emissions growth globally, driven by rising energy use and a global economy expanding by 3.7%.
Need for Energy Efficiency 
“Our data shows that despite the strong growth in solar PV and wind, emissions have started to rise again in advanced economies, highlighting the need for deploying all technologies and energy efficiency,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA executive director. 
“This turnaround should be another warning to governments as they are meeting in Katowice. Increasing efforts are needed to encourage even more renewables, greater energy efficiency, more nuclear, and more innovation for technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage and hydrogen, for instance.”
Energy-related CO2 emissions from advanced economies fell by around 3%, or close to 400 million tons, over the past five years. This was primarily due to a steady decline in coal consumption, given rapid growth in renewables sources of energy, the spread of more efficient equipment and appliances, and coal-to-gas switching, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
Global oil demand is set to grow robustly in 2018, global gas use is also increasing strongly, pushed in particular by Chinese policies aiming to curb air pollution in cities, while large numbers of new coal power plants continue to be built and come online. The IEA expects this will lead to a growth in global CO2 emissions in 2018.