The recent recession could mean the steepest fall in carbon emissions for 40 years, according to an early release of information in the World Energy Outlook (WEO) for 2009 by the International Energy Agency (IEA.)

Investment in polluting technologies has slowed due to the financial crisis and CO2 emissions this year could fall by as much as 3% the report says. This reduction could lead to emissions being 5% lower in 2020 than the IEA estimated in the WEO report last year.

"This gives us a chance