Abstract
Five years after the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, growth in global CO2 emissions has begun to falter. The pervasive disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic have radically altered the trajectory of global CO2 emissions. Contradictory effects of the post-COVID-19 investments in fossil fuel-based infrastructure and the recent strengthening of climate targets must be addressed with new policy choices to sustain a decline in global emissions in the post-COVID-19 era.
Highlights
Global fossil CO2 emissions have decreased by around 2.6 GtCO2 in 2020 to 34 GtCO2 (Fig. 1)
We put the change in 2020 emissions in the context of the recent changes in fossil CO2 emissions in the 5 yr since the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted in 2015 and discuss the implications of COVID-19 for the evolution of global CO2 emissions
We focus on fossil CO2 emission which is the largest contributor to the rise in anthropogenic GHG
Summary
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