Global carbon dioxide pollution returned to a pre-pandemic level this year, according to an early estimate by the research group Global Carbon Project prepared for the COP26 talks occurring in Glasgow, Trend reports citing Bloomberg.
The new numbers vividly illustrate the global challenge posed by decades of delayed climate policy and investment. To meet the 2050 goal of the Paris Agreement, which calls for limits to warming temperatures, nations would now have to cut emissions every year by an amount greater than the combined carbon output of Germany and Saudi Arabia.
Emissions from fossil-fuel burning are expected to rise this year by 4.9% above the 2020 level, to 36.4 gigatons of CO₂, or nearly the 2019 level. Last year, emissions fell 5.4% after Covid-19-related quarantines and policies limited economic activity in much of the world.
China is by far the world's biggest polluter, responsible for almost a third of fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. The country's post-pandemic economic recovery efforts put its coal plants into overdrive, and its national emissions are expected to finish the year 5.5% higher than 2019, at 11 gigatons. India's emissions, the third largest, were found to rise 4.4% over 2019.
Coal use worldwide peaked in 2014, and researchers had noted with some relief that coal was in decline. This year has challenged that assumption, with coal-burning rising above its 2019 level, although still below the record year.