Monitoring global carbon emissions in 2022

Overview & Synopsis

Global CO 2 emissions for 2022 increased by 1.5% relative to 2021 (+7.9% and +2.0% relative to 2020 and 2019, respectively), reaching 36.1 GtCO 2. These 2022 emissions consumed 13%-36% of the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5 °C, suggesting permissible emissions could be depleted within 2-7 years (67% likelihood). The COVID-19 pandemic caused a record annual reduction in global carbon emissions in 2020, decreasing by 5.4% (1.9 GtCO 2) when compared with 2019 (refs. 1,2). However, this drop was short-lived, as evidenced by global CO 2 emissions rebounding to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021, increasing by 6.3% (2.1 GtCO 2) (refs. 3-5). Given the short timeline to meet international climate goals, and so limit anthropogenic warming to 1.5 or 2 °C, detailed and near-real-time tracking of global emissions is crucial. Here, we present and analyse daily, national and sector-specific CO 2 emissions for 2022 using near-real-time data from the Carbon Monitor project 1,2 .