Countries are polluting like it’s 2019 again
Globally, people produced more planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions in December than they did before the pandemic, new data shows. It’s a sign that the pandemic-related drop in emissions was only temporary and that greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to climb.
CO2 emissions from energy use around the world were 2 percent higher in December 2020 compared to global levels during the same month in the previous year, according to the intergovernmental International Energy Agency. China, currently the world’s biggest CO2 polluter, also saw a rise in emissions toward the end of the year.
The new data caps off a year in which global emissions...