This came out on Thursday from calculations by the research association “Global Carbon Projects”. In 2019 it was around 27 percent. The increase is therefore due to the fact that emissions from the second and third largest greenhouse gas emitters, the USA and the EU, fell particularly sharply due to the corona-related lockdowns.
China had the corona pandemic under control faster than most other countries with strict measures. As the only major economy, the People’s Republic therefore recorded positive economic growth in 2020 – and CO2 emissions rose accordingly. According to the figures from the Global Carbon Project, China’s fossil carbon dioxide emissions rose by 1.4 percent last year, while they fell by 10.6 percent in the US and 10.9 percent in the EU. There has been a downward trend in the USA and the EU for around 15 years, while in China it has been rising steeply for around 20 years.
Globally, the global emissions of carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil and gas this year should almost reach the level of 2019 again, according to the calculations of the “Global Carbon Project”. Last year, global emissions fell by 5.4 to 5.6 percent. For this year, the researchers, who took preliminary data into account until the end of October, expect fossil emissions to rise in China and India, the fourth largest polluter, and fall in the USA and the EU. In China it should be plus 5.5 percent compared to 2019, in India plus 4.4 percent. In the USA, minus 3.7 percent compared to 2019 is expected, in the EU minus 4.2 percent.