An unexpected minus from the gradual recovery of the global economy from the coronavirus pandemic was named. Since the end of last year, the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere has gradually increased after a historical drop. Global emissions in December 2020 were 2 percent higher than in the same month a year earlier, Bloomberg reports citing data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
At the same time, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions, global carbon dioxide emissions in the energy sector decreased in 2020 to their lowest level since the Second World War. “As the main demand for energy fell by almost 4 percent in 2020, global energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 5.8 percent,” the IEA said.
Fossil fuels, especially oil and coal, fell significantly. The decline in fuel demand was strongly influenced by the decline in the use of road and air transport. In both the US and the EU, emissions fell by 10%, with the sharpest decline recorded in the spring of 2020. On the other hand, China was the only major economy to see emissions rise by 0.8 percent year over year, the agency said.
Earlier, one of the richest people on the planet, Bill Gates, called the effects of air pollution as devastating as the coronavirus pandemic and predicted a climate catastrophe in the coming decades. According to him, within 40 years, mortality from rising temperatures on the planet will be compared with mortality from coronavirus – about 14 deaths per 100 thousand people.