Global fossil fuel emissions are set to reach a record high in 2025, according to a new study released Thursday.
The Global Carbon Budget Report, published annually, looks at emissions of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere through land use such as hydrocarbon burning, cement production and deforestation.
The report always relates the numbers to limits set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which called for limiting warming at the top to 2 Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, but ideally 1.5 Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2.7 degrees, respectively).
The international team of scientists who conducted the study found that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels will be 1.1% higher in 2025 than a year earlier.
With emissions from fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal rising, the total figure is set to reach a record 38.1 billion tonnes of CO2.
Despite continued global expansion in the use of renewable energy, it is not enough to offset the overall growth in energy demand.
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Background of COP30
The new report, published as nations gather for COP30 climate talks in the northern Brazilian Amazon, estimated the remaining emissions of 170 billion tonnes of CO2 needed to limit temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
“This is equivalent to four years of emissions at the current rate before the budget for 1.5C runs out, so it is essentially impossible,” said Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter, Britain, who led the team of scientists.
Failure to reduce planet-warming emissions is weighing heavily on COP30 in the rainforest city of Belém.
Trump’s non-attendance at climate summit is no surprise
The summit this week is taking place without the presence of the United States, the world’s second-biggest polluter after China.
Washington is not sending a top-level team to this year’s COP climate summit in Belem, Brazil.
The global community had similar expectations from President Donald Trump, who pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement for the second time, cut funding for renewable energy, advocated for fossil fuel projects and told world leaders at the UN General Assembly in September that climate change was “the biggest hoax the world has ever seen.”
Edited by: Sam Dusan Inayatullah