Climate Progress Needs to Be 10 Times Faster to Avoid Catastrophe
That’s just for countries where emissions are falling. A large majority have yet to stop their emissions from rising, a new analysis shows.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Even in the 64 countries where carbon dioxide pollution is falling, it would have to fall 10 times faster to prevent potentially catastrophic, irreversible climate changes, according to a new scientific analysis of global CO₂ emissions since the signing of the Paris pact five years ago.
The Global Carbon Project, an international scientific collaboration, published these findings today in the journal Nature Climate Change. Among the 64 countries with declining emissions, the reduction in carbon dioxide amounted to 160 million metric tons a year from 2016 to 2019 compared to the average from 2011 to 2015. Over the same time period, another 150 countries saw CO₂ rise by an average of 370 million tons a year.