Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes, beating last year’s record high

Global emissions for 2019 are predicted to hit 36.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂), setting yet another all-time record. This disturbing result means emissions have grown by 62% since international climate negotiations began in 1990 to address the problem.

Coal emissions are falling, but gas and coal
 use are strongly rising around the world.

The figures are contained in the Global Carbon Project, which today released its 14th Global Carbon Budget. 

Digging into the numbers, however, reveals a silver lining. While overall carbon emissions continue to rise, the rate of growth is about two-thirds lower than in the previous two years.

Driving this slower growth is an extraordinary decline in coal emissions, particularly in the United States and Europe, and growth in renewable energy globally. 

Read the story from The Conversation - “Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes, beating last year’s record high.” 

Key greenhouse gases higher than any time over the last 800,00 years

The most comprehensive collection of atmospheric greenhouse gas measurements, confirms the relentless rise of many of the most important greenhouse gases. 

Greenhouse gases began with the onset
of the industrial era around 1750. 

The data shows that today’s aggregate warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) nitrous oxide (N₂O) is higher than at any time over the last 800,000 years, according to the ice core records going back that far.

Building on half a century of atmospheric measurements by the international research community, the data was compiled and analysed by a group of international scientists led by Malte Meinshausen, from the University of Melbourne, with colleagues there and at CSIRO.

Together, the data provides the most compelling evidence of the unprecedented perturbation of the Earth’s atmosphere. The data clearly shows that the growth of greenhouse gases began with the onset of the industrial era around 1750, took a sharp turn upwards in the 1950s, and still continues today. 

Research has demonstrated that this observed growth in greenhouse gases is caused by human activities, leading to warming of the climate – and in fact more than the observed warming, because part of their effect is currently masked by atmospheric pollution (aerosols).

Read the Pursuit story - “Key greenhouse gases higher than any time over the last 800,00 years.”