As nations went into lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, factories halted and cars sat idle, clearing the skies above polluted cities and sending climate-changing emissions to historic lows. But the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere ― the accumulation of past and current emissions ― remained virtually unchanged, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s annual estimate.
“The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “We need a sustained flattening of the curve.”
Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the biggest and most significant driver of climate change, soared past 415 parts per million last year, a level never before experienced in human history. The pandemic-induced lockdowns at the start of this year reduced daily global CO2 emissions by up to 17 percent compared to the mean daily level in 2019, the study found. But the total worldwide reduction for the year is likely only between 4.2 percent and 7.5 percent compared to the previous year.
At a global scale, the research concluded, “an emission reduction of this magnitude will not cause atmospheric CO2 levels to decrease; they will merely increase at a slightly reduced rate.”
