In 2013, the Netherlands Environmental Agency (NEA) jointly with the European Commission (EC) published a report on global carbon emissions. One of the major highlights of the report was that 2012 was an exceptional year in terms of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The year experienced only a 1.1 per cent increase in emissions over 2011 levels while the global average annual growth rate of 2.4 ppm in atmospheric CO2 concentrations in 2012 was fairly high. The moderate increase in global CO2 emissions in 2012 seems remarkable at a time when global economic growth was almost on par with the average growth levels over the last decade.
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