Global emissions to fall for first time during a period of economic growth

World may have reached peak emissions, say researchers, as they predict substantial drop in greenhouse gas levels in 2015 due to decline in China's coal consumption

Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will fall in 2015, researchers have said, in what would mark the first time they have declined while the economy has grown substantially.

Emissions have fallen in previous years but only because of financial crashes, such as the global slump in 2007.