Economic woes = lower carbon emissions

The growth of Shanghai's carbon emissions has slowed due to the fallout from the global financial downturn on the local economy, according to a report released yesterday by Tongji University.

Experts said they were worried, however, that businesses and industries may be blinded by the temporary decline and neglect emission controls, resulting in a pollution bounce when the economy recovers.

Coal burning and oil consumption are the largest contributors to carbon emissions, accounting for about 70 percent of the total, experts said.

The annual growth rate in Shanghai's carbon emissions fell to 4.6 percent last year from an average annual increase of 10 percent during the previous three years and an annual rise of 6 percent from 1995 through 2004, the researchers found. The decline in the emissions growth rate was also tied to a drop in Shanghai's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic production.