If the Pandemic of COVID-19 had resulted in an unprecedented drop in emissions in 2020, it will have been very short time.
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“We must make sure that 2019 will remain in the memories as the year of the final peak of global emissions of CO 2 , and that means we have to take measures today to do in whether they decline sustainably. “It was just two years ago, on March 14, 2020. Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Warned the leaders of the planet: The Pandemic of Covid-19 should not divert their attention from the necessary in-depth reform of the energy sector, which is essential to hope to limit the warming. On the contrary, it was imperative that governments take up massive recovery plans to accelerate their investments in clean energies. “We could see the CO emissions 2 drop this year because of the impact of coronavirus, but it would most likely be a short-term rubbub,” still prevented Fatih Birol.
Two years later, the jolt already seems to be part of the story. Tuesday, March 8, The IEA has announced that CO emissions 2 of the energy sector – that is to say related to The combustion of fossil energy (coal, oil, gas) and industrial processes – had broken, in 2021, all records. They reached 36.3 billion tonnes, their highest historical level. By increasing 2.1 billion tonnes (+ 6%) compared to 2020, they also experienced their highest annual increase in absolute value.
“The rebound in 2021 has more than reversed the decline in emissions induced by the pandemic”, writes the International Energy Agency. In 2020, the fall in demand for fossil energies led to an unprecedented decrease in global CO emissions 2 , 5.2% (34.2 billion tonnes). “The world must now ensure that the global rebound is punctual, and that sustainable investments combined with accelerated clean energy deployment reduce CO emissions 2 EN 2022, keeping alive the possibility of ‘Reach carbon neutrality in 2050 “, pleads the Aie.
Vague promises
At the end of COP26 on the climate, held in the fall of 2021 in Scotland, more than 80 states have committed to achieving this carbon neutrality in the middle of the century, even though these promises remain vague . A goal that requires abandoning fossils, and therefore to drastically reform the entire energy sector.
In 2019, a positive trend had been observed: for the first time, after two years of rise, the sector emissions had stagnated, leaving a peak. The IEA then explained this stabilization by the development of renewable energies, the passage of natural gas coal and an increased nuclear use in developed economies.
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