Story at a glance:
- Emissions in 2021 are higher than they were in 2020.
- The world went from record lows to near record highs in emissions.
- Oil-based energy from transportation, half of it being on the road and 35 percent from airplanes, are at fault.
The recent reopenings of businesses and available events have drastically increased carbon dioxide emissions.
When the pandemic hit the world in early 2020, causing most businesses to permanently or temporarily shutter, the lack of energy being used decreased carbon dioxide pollution to levels similar to World War II.
Two billion metric tons of emissions fell, or about 6 percent in 2020, from the prior year.
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2020 was an emission drop like never before: The U.S. and EU saw an average decrease in March, April and May of about 10 percent. Only China had an increase in emission throughout 2020, with about .8 percent on an annual basis. However, the country did have emissions that were 7 percent higher in December 2020 than they were in December 2019.
The drop in emissions in 2020 was a combination of factors: workers were quarantined, businesses were closed and there was less dependency from oil-based energy that came from transportation, half of it being on the road and 35 percent from airplanes.
According to the International Energy Agency, global carbon emissions from energy use are on track to rise by 1.5 billion tonnes in 2021. That represents a 5 percent rise to 33 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide for the year.
As The Hill previously reported, new renewable energy was 50 percent between 2019 and 2020. And in 2021, Renewable Capacity Statistics said more than 80 percent of all new electricity capacity added from 2020 was renewable, including solar and wind, which makes up 91 percent of new renewables.
An increase of new electricity capacity is due to countries withdrawing their support for fossil fuels in significant regions.
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