According to a recent IEA report Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map, global energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 1.4% to reach a historic high of 31.6 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2012.

China

China made the largest contribution to the increase in global CO2 emissions.  But the growth in its emissions was the lowest over the past decade.  The slowing of emissions growth was the result of the deployment of renewables and a significant improvement in the energy intensity of the Chinese economy.

United States

In the United States, the switch from coal to natural gas in power generation contributed to reducing emissions by 200 million tonnes (Mt), about the level of the mid-1990s.

Europe

Primarily because of Germany’s decision to shut down its nuclear power plants, coal use increased in Europe in 2012.  Inspite of this CO2 emissions in Europe declined by 50 Mt as a result of  growth in renewables, a cap on emissions from the industry and power sectors, and economic contraction,.

Japan

Emissions in Japan increased by 70 Mt, as efforts to improve energy efficiency did not fully offset the
use of fossil fuels to compensate for a reduction in nuclear power.

Renewables

The IEA is projecting that globally total electric power generation from renewables will exceed that from natural gas by 2016.

Climate change

Based on current policies, the IEA projects that the long-term average temperature increase is likely to be between 3.6°C and 5.3°C compared with pre-industrial levels, with most of the increase occurring this century.

The IEA projects that with current policies global energy-related greenhouse-gas emissions in 2020 will be nearly 4 Gt CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) higher than the target for limiting Earth’s surface temperature increase to 2°C.