‘We are in trouble’: Global carbon emissions reached a record high in 2018
- Worrying increase in level of emissions is being driven by nearly 5 per cent emissions growth in China and more than 6 per cent in India
Global emissions of carbon dioxide have reached the highest levels on record, scientists projected Wednesday, in the latest evidence of the chasm between international goals for combating climate change and what countries are actually doing.
Between 2014 and 2016, emissions remained largely flat, leading to hopes that the world was starting to turn a corner. Those hopes have been dashed. In 2017, global emissions grew 1.6 per cent. The rise in 2018 is projected to be 2.7 per cent.
The expected increase, which would bring fossil fuel and industrial emissions to a record high of 37.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, is being driven by nearly 5 per cent emissions growth in China and more than 6 per cent in India, researchers estimated, along with growth in many other nations throughout the world. Emissions by the United States grew 2.5 per cent, while emissions by the European Union declined by slightly less than 1 per cent.
As nations gather for climate talks in Poland, the message of Wednesday’s report was unambiguous: When it comes to promises to begin cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change, the world remains well off target.
“We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said this week at the opening of the 24th annual UN climate conference, where countries will wrestle with the ambitious goals they need to meet to sharply reduce carbon emissions in coming years.
“It is hard to overstate the urgency of our situation,” he added. “Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption.”