"When the International Energy Agency reported in March that global carbon emissions had stayed flat in 2014, even as the world economy grew, the news was hailed as a turning point in the struggle to curb climate change.

But more recent data about Chinese coal consumption, seen by Reuters, raise doubts about whether that historic decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions from energy use actually occurred.

One of the keys to keeping carbon emissions flat in 2014 was significantly lower coal consumption in China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter: a 2.9 per cent drop, reported in preliminary Chinese data in February."

Alister Doyle and David Stanway report for Reuters September 15, 2015. [2]