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Exeter (dpa) - Mainly because of the corona pandemic, global carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and gas fell by seven percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
The amount fell by 2.4 billion tons to 34 billion tons of CO2.
This emerges from a balance sheet of the Global Carbon Project, which appeared in the journal “Earth Systems Science Data”.
In the USA (minus 12 percent) and in the EU (minus 11 percent) the decline in CO2 emissions was particularly large.
"This is where reduced emissions from coal use and the effects of pandemic-related restrictions came together," said Julia Pongratz from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, one of the authors of the study, according to a statement from her university.
Even before that, emissions had grown more slowly than in previous years, and with the corona pandemic, emissions had now fallen significantly.
"Whether this heralds a trend depends heavily on how the measures in the Covid-19 stimulus packages are designed around the world," emphasizes Pongratz.
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The team headed by Pierre Friedlingstein from the University of Exeter (Great Britain) warns whether the decline in emissions will continue in the future.
After the decline in emissions due to the global financial crisis, emissions jumped five percent in 2010 as the economy recovered.
There are fears that there will also be a sharp increase in CO2 emissions in 2021.
In October 2020, a convergence to the level of 2019 could already be observed.
However, one to two billion tons of CO2 would have to be saved worldwide every year by 2030 in order not to exceed the Paris climate targets.
"We are lucky that more than half of the man-made CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean and land vegetation," emphasized Pongratz at an online press conference.
The decrease in 2020 - purely in terms of the tons saved - was considerably larger than earlier cuts of around 0.5 billion tons in 2009 or 0.9 billion tons at the end of World War II in 1945. Even though less CO2 was emitted in 2020 than in 2019, it increased The content of the long-lived greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continues: in the annual mean it is expected to reach the new record value of 412 ppm (parts per million).
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Land transport, which accounts for 21 percent of global CO2 emissions, had the largest share of the decline.
At the height of the lockdown measures in the spring, emissions in this sector had fallen by 50 percent.
In comparison, emissions in industry were 30 percent lower and electricity generation was 15 percent lower.
Only in air traffic was the decrease of 75 percent higher than in land traffic.
However, the effect was less, as emissions only make up 2.8 percent of global CO2 emissions.
The researchers are encouraged by the evidence that climate-friendly policies are possible with economic growth at the same time.
Between 2010 and 2019, fossil CO2 emissions fell significantly in 24 countries with growing economies, including Germany, 14 other EU countries, the UK, the USA and Japan.
For the first time, the Global Carbon Project calculated the gross balance for changes in land use based on its data and models.
Around 16 billion tons of CO2 were released in 2020, particularly through deforestation.
"Deforestation is still progressing rapidly, especially in tropical regions," says Pongratz.
On the other hand, other measures, especially the abandonment of agricultural land, led to a CO2 uptake of 11 billion tons on the land surface.
If the difference is added to the 34 billion tons of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels, man-made CO2 emissions of 39 billion tons result for 2020.
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The scientists emphasize that despite the record drop in CO2 emissions, the remaining emissions continue to lead to an increase in CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.
"The atmospheric CO2 content and thus the world climate will only stabilize when global CO2 emissions are close to zero," emphasizes the lead researcher Friedlingstein.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201211-99-649712 / 2