The chief benefit of the International Energy Agency’s new monthly data on global carbon emissions, published Tuesday, is getting to see just how awful our predicament is on a much more up-to-date basis.
In its latest Global Energy Review, the IEA found that Covid-19 touched off the biggest annual drop in carbon emissions ever, down almost two billion tonnes, or about 6%. Within that, though, there was wide disparity between countries; China’s emissions actually rose slightly for the year. Plus, following the contours of the pandemic itself, emissions plunged last spring but recovered from there in many countries. This is where the monthly data come in. In April, global emissions were down almost 15%, year over year; but by December, they were up 2%, year over year.
