After Historic Fall, Carbon Emissions Are Now Coming Back Fast

Pandemic restrictions in 2020 caused the largest absolute drop in carbon-dioxide pollution from energy use since World War II. But lockdowns eventually lifted, and as economic activity picked up, emissions resumed very quickly by year's end. In December, worldwide emissions were 2% higher than the same month in 2019, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.  

Emissions from energy fell by about 2 billion metric tons, or 5.8% in 2020, from the prior year. Such a plunge "is without precedent in human history — broadly speaking, this is the equivalent of removing all of the European Union's emissions from the global total," the authors wrote.

The category with the biggest drop in energy-use emissions was transportation, as workers quarantined and business slowed or halted. The decline in oil use contributed more than half of the overall total, with half of that coming from road traffic and another 35% from grounded airplanes.

The bright spots—there were some—came in the renewables space. Electricity generated from the sun and wind reached a record 20% of the mix  of global energy sources for the first time, and electric vehicles sold in record numbers.

Scientists estimate that emissions would have to plummet by 10% for the year before scientists could detect the reduction in the CO₂ concentration of the atmosphere, which has risen every year for decades. 




Source: Bloomberg
Image Source: Unsplash