The Guardian

‘The critical decade’

Global gas emissions at all-time high

Fiona Harvey

Greenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, threatening “unprecedented” levels of global heating, scientists have warned.

The world is rapidly running out of “carbon budget”, the amount of CO2 that can be poured into the atmosphere if we are to stay within the vital threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, according to a study published in the journal Earth System Science Data yesterday.

Only about 250bn tonnes of carbon dioxide can now be emitted, to avoid the accumulation in the atmosphere that would raise temperatures by 1.5C or more. That is down from 500bn tonnes a few years ago, and at current rates of greenhouse gas emissions – of about 54bn tonnes a year over the past decade – it would run out well before the end of the 2020s.

Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds, and the paper’s lead author, said: “This is the critical decade for climate change. Decisions made now will have an impact on how much temperatures will rise and the degree and severity of impact as a result.” He said the rate of increase in emissions had slowed, but far more action was needed. Government are meeting in Bonn

to prepare for a major UN summit on the climate, Cop28, this November in the United Arab Emirates. Cop28 is seen as one of the last opportunities for the world to get on track to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, and stay within 1.5C. At Cop28, nations will undertake

a “global stocktake” for the first time since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015 to assess if they are on track to meet commitments to cut emissions.

That stocktake is likely to show the world is far off track, as the paper published yesterday shows. Despite a sharp fall in 2020 due to lockdowns, emissions are rising again

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2023-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

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