Carbon dioxide emissions will rise to a record high in 2023 and continue rising afterward (FT) if countries implement their COVID-19 recovery plans as currently designed, a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report projects. The IEA found that only around 2 percent of the global fiscal response to the pandemic is devoted to clean energy, far short of the investment needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and slow a rise in the global average temperature.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol will present the findings (Guardian) to Group of Twenty (G20) energy ministers this week. The report comes as extreme weather events, such as flooding, wildfires, and heat waves, have pummeled countries around the world in recent weeks. At least twenty-five people died (Reuters) and hundreds of thousands were evacuated from their homes amid flooding in recent days in China’s central Henan Province, where the city of Zhengzhou received a year’s worth of rainfall (BBC) in three days.
Analysis
“When global [carbon dioxide] emissions fell last year, lots of people warned the dip would only be temporary unless countries folded major climate measures into their economic recovery plans. That mostly didn’t happen, and emissions are now on pace to hit record highs,” tweets the New York Times’ Brad Plumer.
“Extreme heat worsened by climate change has already made itself known. It’s now up to policymakers to take the steps necessary to reduce the threat from climate-driven heat extremes. That means urgently reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions to avoid unmanageable heat and adopting heat safety policies and systems,”
