Fossil-based C02 emissions set to break records by 2022

CO2 emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels -oil, gas and coal- will reach a new record in 2022, according to a study published this Friday during the COP27 in Egypt.

Total greenhouse gas emissions, including those from deforestation, will reach 40.6 billion tons, just below the record level of 2019, according to the first projections published for this year 2022 by scientists from the Global Carbon Project.

That means that at that rate, there remains only a 50% chance of preventing global warming from exceeding 1.5°C in the next nine years, according to the study.

Fossil CO2 emissions "will increase by 1% compared to 2021, to reach 36.6 billion tons, slightly above the levels of 2019, before COVID-19," according to the calculations of the Global Carbon Project.

The increase is mainly motivated by the consumption of oil (+2.2%) and coal (+1%), and the recovery of air traffic.

Update promises

CO2 emissions from fossil fuels will break records in 2022, according to an alarming new report released this Friday at the UN climate conference (COP27), which hosts US President Joe Biden.

Biden will remain just a few hours in this Egyptian resort on the edge of the Red Sea, for the speech and a bilateral meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al Sisi.

His intention is to remember that in August he signed an energy transition law and climate measures for 370,000 million dollars.

A senior US official assured that Biden also arrives with the intention of announcing a new cut in US emissions of up to 52% in 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

The international community as a whole has not honoured its promise to reduce CO2 emissions, despite the fact that according to climatologists, it is the essential condition for the world not to exceed +1.5 ºC of average temperature compared to the pre-industrial era.

Only thirty countries updated their goals to further cut their emissions before reaching Sharm el Sheikh, although it was a mutual commitment agreed upon a year ago.

Fossil CO2 emissions will increase by 1% compared to 2021, says the Global Carbon Project report released this Friday.

The UN for its part announced this Friday a satellite detection and alert program from space to try to curb methane emissions, a very powerful greenhouse gas.

Listening to the parties

In the midst of the energy crisis, and with almost all climate indicators in the red, finances dominate the talks at COP27.

Colombia revealed on Thursday its estimate of annual losses and damages due to the weather: 4.3 billion dollars.

"The parties have divergent positions. And there are some who, of course, would like to see the establishment of an institution under the financial mechanism of the convention. It seems difficult," Julio Cordado, a Chilean negotiator who, together with his German counterpart, chairs the working group on "loss and damage".

In Sharm el Sheikh, another delicate discussion has also been opened: how to update the figure of 100,000 million dollars a year that the rich countries had promised to give to the poor, basically to mitigate their gas emissions and adapt to the new reality.

That figure was promised in 2009, for 2020. Two years later, it has only been partially fulfilled.

The main emitter of CO2 on the planet, China, maintains a cautious position, halfway between its alliance with the group of developing countries (G77, which groups 134 countries) and its status as the second-largest economy on the planet.

President Xi Jinping did not attend COP27. Although relations with the United States are very cold, Xi and Biden will meet during the G20 summit next week in Indonesia.

A hundred activists demonstrated this Friday inside the large exhibition complex where COP27 is being held, subject to close police surveillance.

"Indigenous peoples represent and care for and protect 80% of the planet's biodiversity, we want them to tell us here how they are going to repair the damage," demanded Miriam Vargas, a Mexican activist from Puebla.