Global emissions surge back in December despite record annual fall
Global carbon emissions have already returned to pre-Covid levels due to surge in energy usage driven by the global economic recovery to the crisis.
According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), emissions were 2 per cent, or 60m tonnes, higher in December than they were in the same month a year earlier.
That was despite the pandemic causing a 2bn ton fall in carbon dioxide emissions across the whole year, the largest drop in recorded history.
Around half of this fall was made up by the decline in the use of oil as economies around the world were forced to shutter due to the pandemic.
The drop in road transport activity accounted for 50 per cent of the decline in global oil demand, and the slump in the aviation sector for around 35 per cent, the Paris-based agency said.
When the coronavirus spread across the world last spring, many hoped that the resulting shutdown would accelerate a shift away from economies based on fossil fuel products.
Although many countries have accelerated their plans to move away from such energy sources over the last year, the IEA’s executive director Dr Fatih Birol said the rise in emissions in December were a sign that action was not being taken quickly enough.
“If governments don’t move quickly with the right energy policies, this could put at risk the world’s historic opportunity to make 2019 the definitive peak in global emissions”, he said.
“In March 2020, the IEA urged governments to put clean energy at the heart of their economic stimulus plans to ensure a sustainable recovery. But our numbers show we are returning to carbon-intensive business-as-usual.”
A number of countries around the world saw emissions increase over the course of last year.
China, which was the first country out of lockdown last April and has had the most successful recovery from the pandemic so far, saw emissions grow 0.8 per cent, or 75m tonnes, from 2019 levels.
Meanwhile, both Brazil and India saw emissions climb above 2019’s levels in the last quarter, driven by a resurgence in demand for fuels like oil.
And even in the US, where emissions fell 10 per cent in 2020, levels are now approaching 2019’s levels.