Annual report shows no sign of decrease in global CO2 emissions

The 2022 Global Carbon Budget, co-authored by GEOG researchers Louise Chini and George Hurtt, was published in Earth System Science Data and unveiled Friday morning at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The annual report, produced by the Global Carbon Project, has been providing updates on trends in global carbon emissions and sinks since 2006. This year’s report shows that global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – with no sign of the decrease that is urgently needed to limit warming to 1.5°C. If current emissions levels persist, there is now a 50% chance that global warming of 1.5°C will be exceeded in nine years, according to the Global Carbon Project science team.

Chini and Hurtt contributed to the land-use section of the report, as they have done for the past 10 years. Using annual remote sensing data from MapBiomas from 1985 to 2020, they updated land-use data for Brazil to more accurately represent the upturn in the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon observed in recent years. They also provided updated land-use data for cropland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Land-use changes are a significant source of CO2 emissions, and Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with Indonesia, contribute 58% of land-use change-related CO2 emissions. Global Carbon Project researchers note that stopping deforestation and increasing efforts to restore and expand forests constitutes a large opportunity to reduce emissions and increase carbon removal in forests.