Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels will reach record levels this year, exacerbating climate change and contributing to more extreme weather across the planet.
The Global Carbon Budget report, released last Tuesday as part of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, said total carbon dioxide emissions, which reached a record high last year, will plateau in 2023. Reuters reported on December 5.
The main driving forces in the increase in emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and gas were India and China – the two most populous countries in the world. Growth in China was driven by the easing of restrictions in the world’s second-largest economy after Covid lockdowns, and in India by domestic demand for electricity growing faster than local renewable energy capacity, forcing fossil fuels to make up the difference.
This year’s emissions trajectory takes the world even further away from its goal of limiting global warming to more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
In the 2015 Paris climate agreement, countries agreed to keep warming to within two degrees Celsius, targeting 1.5 degrees. According to scientists, atmospheric warming of more than 1.5°C will lead to irreversible consequences, including deadly heat waves, catastrophic floods and the death of coral reefs.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s scientific panel on climate change, said global emissions would need to fall by 43% by 2030 to reach the 1.5°C target. But instead, emissions have only increased in recent years.
Scientists at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research in Helsinki recently said China could enter a “structural decline” in greenhouse gas emissions as early as next year due to record levels of renewable energy installations. China currently accounts for 31% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
The new report also notes several positive aspects. Thus, emissions in the US and EU have decreased, including due to the decommissioning of coal-fired power plants.
Overall, 26 countries accounting for 28% of global CO₂ emissions are on a downward trend. Most of these states are located in Europe, note researchers from the world organization.
Meanwhile, at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in the UAE, a decision on a global phase-out of fossil energy production and use in the future remains in question. The draft final resolution of the two-week climate forum, circulated yesterday, contains various options for the future. One of them does not mention the topic of the global “green transition” at all, notes France-Presse (AFP).
Saudi Arabia has opposed the decision to phase out fossil fuels. Kingdom Energy Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Salman said in an interview with Bloomberg that the largest Arab monarchy “absolutely” disagrees with the demands of a number of countries at the conference and will not approve a resolution with commitments to abandon oil, gas and coal.
Decisions at the climate conference require unanimous approval, with countries abstaining being considered to have agreed, AFP notes.
The most transformative option includes a call for “an orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.” Another version of the final resolution calls for “accelerating efforts to phase out fossil fuels unless opportunities to remove emissions from the atmosphere become available, and rapidly reducing their use to achieve carbon neutrality in the energy system by around mid-century or sooner.”
In addition, the draft outcome document contains various text options regarding the continued use of coal, which range from banning coal-fired power plants that emit CO₂ into the atmosphere by the end of the current decade, and banning the construction of new coal-fired power plants to reducing the use of such plants by 75 percent by 2030. compared to 2019. It is also possible that there will be a complete absence of a clause on coal-fired power plants in the final COP28 declaration.
2023-12-05 21:21:00
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