Global carbon dioxide emissions set to hit record levels in 2023: IEA

Global carbon dioxide emissions are likely to rise to record levels in 2023 and continuing to rise thereafter. Governments across the world are spending too little on clean energy in comparison to the amount allocated for the economic response to the COVID-19 crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Tuesday. The agency warned that the rising carbon dioxide levels would leave the world far from the pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.

Carbon dioxide emissions

In its report, IEA said that the governments allocated 2 per cent of the spending to clean energy measures, according to IEA analysis. The new Sustainable Recovery Tracker that the IEA has launched comes ahead of G20 Ministerial Meeting on Environment, Climate and Energy in Naples, which takes place on 22 and 23 July under the Presidency of Italy. Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director in the statement said that the governments talk about building a cleaner future but many of them are not spending money for the cleaner future.

“Since the Covid-19 crisis erupted, many governments may have talked about the importance of building back better for a cleaner future, but many of them are yet to put their money where their mouth is. Despite increased climate ambitions, the amount of economic recovery funds being spent on clean energy is just a small sliver of the total,” said Fatih Birol in the statement. 

According to the Sustainable Recovery Tracker, as of the second quarter of 2021, governments around the world have allocated around USD 380 billion on clean energy measures as part of their economic response to the COVID-19 crisis. The amount is around 2 per cent of the total fiscal support in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Majority of funds are being mobilised in advanced economies, which are nearing 60 per cent of the investment levels envisaged in the Sustainable Recovery Plan. Emerging and developing economies have so far mobilised only about 20 per cent of the recommended spending levels. Fatih Birol highlighted that the government needs to increase spending for clean energy to meet the commitments made in Paris in 2015.

“Governments need to increase spending and policy action rapidly to meet the commitments they made in Paris in 2015 – including the vital provision of financing by advanced economies to the developed world,”  said Birol. 

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