According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global CO2 emissions remained stable in 2015 at 32.1 Gt for the second year in a row, confirming the decoupling of global emissions and economic growth.
This was allowed by the rising share of renewables in power generation (renewables accounted for around 90% of new power generation in 2015, with wind power accounting for more than 50% alone). China's emissions dipped by 1.5% as coal consumption contracted for a second year in a row, highlighting the structural shift towards less energy-intensive industries and the government's efforts to reduce the use of coal in power generation: in 2015, coal accounted for less than 70% of the power mix, 10 percentage points less than in 2011, to the advantage of low-carbon sources (from 19% of the power mix in 2011 to 28% in 2015). In the United States, the large switch from coal to gas use in the power sector led to a 2% decline in emissions. However, this improvement in the two major emitters was offset by higher emissions in other Asian developing countries and in the Middle East (and in Europe, to a lesser extent). Meanwhile, the global economy grew by 3.1% in 2015, improving the global carbon intensity.