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

The latest edition of the Global Carbon Budget highlights how extreme weather events and continued CO₂ emissions are accelerating its accumulation in the atmosphere, significantly exacerbating climate change. In 2023, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations increased by 2.79 parts per million, and are projected to increase by another 2.76 parts per million in 2024, equivalent to approximately 21.5 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO₂. These increases exceed the average annual increase observed over the past decade, highlighting the lack of a significant downward trend.

The sustained increase in CO₂ concentrations highlights the impact of the recent El Niño event, which, combined with massive emissions from wildfires in North and South America, has left additional amounts of CO₂ in the atmosphere. By 2024, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are projected to reach a record average of 422.5 parts per million, 52% above pre-industrial levels.

This represents a worrying setback against global commitments to reduce emissions and achieve net zero by 2050. Furthermore, this persistent and growing accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere puts the goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C, 1.7°C, and even 2°C above pre-industrial levels ever further away, representing a crucial challenge for climate change mitigation and the sustainability of the planet.

Taken together, these data reinforce the urgency of intensifying decarbonization efforts across all sectors and adopting more ambitious mitigation measures to avoid irreversible climate impacts that already affect ecological systems, biodiversity and human security worldwide.