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Carbon dioxide emissions continue to grow amidst slowly emerging climate policies

A failure to recognize the factors behind continued emissions growth could limit the world’s ability to shift to a pathway consistent with 1.5 °C or 2 °C of global warming. Continued support for low-carbon technologies needs to be combined with policies directed at phasing out the use of fossil fuels.

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Fig. 1: Global fossil CO2 emissions showing projections for 2019.
Fig. 2: Carbon dioxide emissions from different fossil fuels by sector.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Quadrelli and F. Mattion from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for provision of data and understanding of appropriate use thereof. G.P.P., R.M.A., P.F. and J.I.K. acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 821003 (CCiCC). G.P.P., R.A., J.I.K. and C.L.Q. acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 776810 (VERIFY). J.G.C. acknowledges the support of the Australian National Environmental Science Program — Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub. A.P. acknowledges the Climate and Biodiversity Initiative of BNP Paribas Foundation for the support of Global Carbon Atlas hosting the Global Carbon Budget emissions data set.

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Peters, G.P., Andrew, R.M., Canadell, J.G. et al. Carbon dioxide emissions continue to grow amidst slowly emerging climate policies. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 3–6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0659-6

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