Climate: a new record for CO2 emissions in 2021

Coal took advantage of volatile gas prices to win, especially in China;

it alone accounts for nearly half of emissions.

AFP/File

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

A week after the publication of the latest IPCC report, which once again insisted on the obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the catastrophic effects of global warming, another report published on Tuesday shows that we is not on the right path at all.

The International Energy Agency reveals that CO2 emissions last year were never so high.

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After the break of 2020 and the Covid-19, 2021 breaks all records: never before has humanity emitted so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, 36.3 billion tonnes in total.

The big winner is coal, used mainly to generate electricity.

It took advantage of volatile gas prices to establish itself, particularly in China;

it alone accounts for nearly half of emissions.

Oil remains at a level below that of the pandemic, this is explained in particular by the airlines which have not yet recovered all their activity.

► Consult the report by clicking here  

Some parts of the world will become unlivable

Anyway, forgotten the promises of a more sustainable recovery, humanity is burning fossil fuels more than ever, and too bad if this is in total contradiction with the Paris climate agreement and the scientific evidence provided by the IPCC last week.

Beyond a certain threshold of warming, and therefore of greenhouse gas emissions, it will simply be impossible to live in certain regions of the world in the future.

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A small glimmer of hope all the same in this very gloomy picture: it is not only coal which is progressing, renewable energies too.

They experienced their best growth rate last year.

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