COP26: China’s carbon emissions set to pass pre-pandemic levels
- Report by Global Carbon Project predicts country’s emissions will rise by 4 per cent this year as the economy rebounds from Covid-19
- China is the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide, followed by the US, EU and India
The annual assessment by an international group of scientists called the Global Carbon Project said “Chinese emissions appear to have risen in both 2020 and 2021 despite the economic disruptions of Covid-19” and are now 5.5 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
Worldwide carbon emissions are set to return to 36.4 billion tonnes, near their 2019 levels after dropping by 5.4 per cent last year amid lockdowns, according to the team of nearly 100 researchers in 17 countries who used energy statistics and cement production data to make their forecasts.
Last year, China emitted 31 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel carbon dioxide, followed by the US at 14 per cent, the European Union at seven per cent and India also at seven per cent. The four accounted for 59 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Global Carbon Project’s executive director Pep Canadell said that worldwide carbon dioxide emissions are very likely to reach and probably exceed pre-pandemic levels because most parts of the world dominated by fossil fuels would catch up with economic activities.
“We can expect that China will not maintain that huge growth we saw on coal,” he said, referring to a 2.5 per cent projected increase in coal emissions this year.
“But China is moving from a huge stimulus package to get the economy going and the rest of the world is asking for China for a lot of products, which has pushed the industry to really require so much energy,” he said.