THAT WAS EASY:

The International Energy Agency (IEA), made up mostly of energy-consuming rich countries, reckons worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide in 2014 were the same as in 2013. The only occasions CO2 emissions have actually fallen were in the early 1980s and 2008, both periods of economic contraction, but this is the first time for many years that the world economy has grown (up by 3.3% according to the IMF) and emissions have not risen too. In the European Union, GDP went up by 1.4% last year but CO2 emissions from energy use fell by 6%. Over the past five years GDP among all rich countries has risen by 7% but CO2 emissions from energy have fallen by 4%, offsetting a rise in developing countries.

The IEA's finding suggests the regulations put in place to rein in pollution are starting to have an impact. In the EU, for instance, the number of household appliances has risen by a quarter in the past ten years, but household electricity use has been flat--testimony (probably) to the many efficiency requirements brought in under European law. The IEA reckons three-quarters of the cars sold around the world in 2014 met some kind of vehicle-emission or other efficiency standard, and that the fuel-efficiency of new cars in the EU last year was 28% higher than it had been in 2000 (the global improvement was less--16%--but still significant). The IEA reckons that, in America, where emissions ticked up slightly in 2014, vehicle-emission standards have prevented more CO2 entering the atmosphere than switching from coal-fired to gas-fired power stations.

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