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COVID curbed carbon emissions in 2020 — but not by much

Despite sharp drops early in the pandemic, global emissions of carbon dioxide picked up in the second half of the year, new data show.
  1. Jeff Tollefson
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After rising steadily for decades, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4%, or 2.3 billion tonnes, in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic squelched economic and social activities worldwide, according to new data on daily fossil fuel emissions. The decline is significant — roughly double Japan’s yearly emissions — but smaller than many climate researchers expected given the scale of the pandemic, and is not expected to last once the virus is brought under control.

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Nature 589, 343 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00090-3

References

  1. Liu, Z. et al. Nature Commun. 11, 5172 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Friedlingstein, P. et al. Earth Syst. Sci. Data https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020 (2020).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

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