Due To COVID-19 Lockdowns, Global Co2 Emissions Expected To Fall By Up To 7% In 2020

There is likely to be a fall of 4 per cent to 7 per cent in global carbon dioxide emissions due to the coronavirus lockdown and the slowness that followed, according to a United in Science 2020 report which was released by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Wednesday.

In early April, when the COVID-19 lockdown had just begun, the daily global CO2 emissions had dropped to 2006 levels falling by 17 per cent as compared to 2019. However, by early June, the daily fossil fuel CO2 emissions returned to within 5 per cent below 2019 levels.

The report mentioned that the exact decline in CO2 emissions this year will depend on the trajectory of the pandemic and government responses to address it.

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Washington Post

The Energy Review 2020 by the International Energy Agency released in April also showed similar estimates. According to that, global CO2 emissions are expected to decline by 8 per cent or almost 2.6 gigatonnes to levels of from a decade ago due to massive fall in energy demand and economic shock this year.

However, the dip in CO2 emissions hasn't made any difference to the global CO2 concentrations.

According to experts, the COVID-19 lockdown should be a lesson to the world on how to reduce emissions in the future but also make sure that the economy does not get affected.

Presently, the world is going to see its warmest five years on record and is also not on track to meet the Paris Agreement targets to keep global temperature increase below 2 degree C or at 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial levels. This report was drafted by several agencies which include the World Meteorological Organization, Global Carbon Project, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission said on Wednesday.

AFP

WMO Secretary-General, Professor Petteri Taalas, ¡°Greenhouse gas concentrations - which are already at their highest levels in 3 million years - have continued to rise. Meanwhile, large swathes of Siberia have seen a prolonged and remarkable heatwave during the first half of 2020, which would have been very unlikely without anthropogenic climate change. And now 2016¨C2020 is set to be the warmest five-year period on record. This report shows that whilst many aspects of our lives have been disrupted in 2020, climate change has continued unabated".

The report further added that for 2016-2020, the average global temperature is predicted to be the warmest ever recorded which is about 1.1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and 0.24 degree C warmer than the global average temperature for 2011-2015.

Also read: If CO2 Emissions Are Cut To Zero, Earth Will Still Take More Than A Decade To Cool Off

AFP

The coronavirus-induced pandemic has had a major impact on the planet.

UN Secretary-General Ant¨®nio Guterres, ¡°This has been an unprecedented year for people and the planet. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives worldwide. At the same time, the heating of our planet and climate disruption has continued apace. Never before has it been so clear that we need long-term, inclusive, clean transitions to tackle the climate crisis and achieve sustainable development".

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