Global CO2 emissions reached a record in 2022 – 02/03/2023 – Environment

Global carbon dioxide (CO_two) related to energy reached a record 36.8 billion tonnes last year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday (2).

Despite this, the increase was lower than expected, due to the adoption of more clean technologies, such as solar energy and electric vehicles, which helped to limit the impact of the increased use of coal and oil.

The analysis showed that global emissions increased by 0.9% in 2022.

This comes at the same time that deep cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, are needed to meet goals of limiting the rise in global temperature and preventing runaway climate change, scientists have stressed.

“We still see fossil fuel emissions rising, which is hampering efforts to meet the world’s climate targets,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in a statement. The agency assesses that non-renewable energies have “an unsustainable growth path”.

Emissions from coal rose 1.6% last year, as many countries turned to this dirtier fuel after the price of gas soared with reduced Russian supplies to Europe due to the Ukraine War.

CO emissions_two Oil prices were up 2.5% but remained below pre-pandemic levels, according to the report. About half of that growth is associated with an increase in air travel, which is recovering from a low during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lower output from nuclear power plants and extreme weather events, including heat waves, also contributed to rising energy-related emissions, the IEA said.

Despite this, they were partially offset by the expansion of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, energy efficiency measures and electric vehicles. This avoided an additional 550 million tons of CO emissions._two last year, according to the agency.

By regions, emissions from the United States increased by 0.8%, with a strong demand for energy due to the extreme temperatures faced by the country.

In Asia (except China), they grew by 4.2%, driven by economic growth in the continent. China, where Covid-19-related restrictions were in place until the end of last year, maintained the same level of CO emissions._two.

In the European Union, indices fell by 2.5%, thanks to strong investment in renewables, driven by the energy crisis caused by the war.

The IEA report comes just weeks after oil majors such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Shell posted record profits. BP also backed away from plans to cut oil and gas production and reduce emissions.

“National and international fossil fuel companies are earning record revenues and need to take their share of responsibility,” said Birol.

This Wednesday (1), Petrobras announced profits of R$ 188.3 billion in 2022 – the highest in history not only for the state-owned company, but also among all Brazilian companies.