Reacción a "Fossil CO2 emissions to rise to 37.4 billion tonnes by 2024, says major carbon balance report"

The Global Carbon Budget is a study that quantifies anthropogenic carbon emissions, as well as the role of the ocean and terrestrial biosphere in reducing or exacerbating the total concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. This study is an international effort of more than eighty research institutions involving hundreds of climate change experts. This year, fossil carbon emissions are reported to be 0.8% higher than last year, with no clear signs of a peak, let alone a negative trend.

The report shows some efforts to combat climate change and highlights the negative trend in emissions from land use change (e.g. less emissions associated with deforestation in the last decade). However, natural fluctuations in carbon sinks, especially in the terrestrial biosphere, may contribute to the increase in atmospheric carbon. For example, in 2024, forest fires and biosphere degradation related to the El Niño event in 2023-2024 are reported to have favoured an increase in total (i.e. anthropogenic and natural) carbon emissions, being 2% higher than in 2023.

The study reports that, if this trend in total emissions continues, in the next six years the global temperature of the planet will exceed the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement. To avoid exceeding this temperature limit, anthropogenic carbon emissions must be drastically reduced. At present, technologies to deliberately remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere do not play a relevant role in counteracting anthropogenic carbon emissions.