Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2023: IEA

CO₂ emissions from energy rose by 1.1 percent in 2023, increasing by 410 million tonnes to a record 37.4 billion tonnes, slowing down from a gain of 490 million tonnes in 2022, the IEA said in its annual update on emissions.

The IEA said that without technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear power and electric cars, the global increase in energy-related CO₂ emissions over the last five years would have been three times larger the 900 million tonnes registered.

Over 40 percent of last year’s increase in carbon emissions from energy resulted from severe droughts in China, the United States, India and elsewhere which cut hydro-electric output and forced utilities to resort to fossil fuels.

Without the water shortfalls, global carbon emissions from power generation alone would have fallen last year.

Energy carbon emissions rose in China and India in 2023, while advanced economies saw a record fall even as their economies grew. Their emissions dropped to a 50-year low as coal demand fell back to levels not seen since the early 1900s.

Read the full post at phys.org.