Greenhouse gas emissions predicted to drop record 7% in 2020

Greenhouse gas emissions predicted to drop record 7% in 2020
Greenhouse gas emissions predicted to drop record 7% in 2020
Anonim

Climatologists found that the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in 2020 compared to the previous period decreased by the equivalent of 2.4 billion tons (7%). So far, this is the largest decline on record. The research results were published by the scientific journal Earth System Science Data.

“Despite this, humanity still emits a huge amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere - it is equivalent to 39 billion tons of CO2. University (UK) Pierre Friedlingstein.

Due to the spread of coronavirus infection, the volume of industrial production, automobile traffic and many other sources of CO2 and other greenhouse gases has sharply decreased in the world. The first studies showed that, compared with winter and early spring 2019, greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 decreased by about 8.8%. In October, British climatologists published more relevant data, according to which global CO2 emissions for the entire current year could decrease by about 4, 4-5, 3%.

Friedlingstein and his colleagues at the Global Carbon Budget prepared a preliminary estimate of how emissions will change over the entire year of 2020 and which sectors of the economy and industry experienced the largest drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

According to their article, the level of emissions decreased more than expected: it fell by a record 2.4 billion tons. This represents approximately 7% of the total mass of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases that humanity released into the atmosphere last year. In absolute terms, this decline is several times greater than the consequences of the economic crises of 2009, 1981 and 1992.

The researchers note that the events of 2020 affected different sectors of the economy of the countries of the world in very different ways, which is directly related to how the COVID-19 epidemic is progressing. In particular, the largest decrease was observed in the USA and European countries: by 11-12%. China was practically not affected by this drop - emissions there decreased by only 1.7%.

If you look at the sectors, the biggest decrease in emissions was observed in the aviation and road transport sectors. They produced 10 to 40% less CO2 and other greenhouse gases. On the other hand, the metals and energy sectors recovered their typical emissions after a sharp drop in April and almost reached last year's values.

In general, scientists expect the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rise relatively little: by about 2.5 ppm, rising from 410 to 412 ppm. Climatologists suggest that after the end of the COVID-19 epidemic, this figure will return to the values of previous years, when the concentration of CO2 increased by three parts per million every year.

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