Scientists predict CO2 fossil fuel emissions to reach record high in 2022

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change, are on track to rise one percent in 2022 to reach an all-time high, scientists said Friday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

Emissions from oil, fuelled by the continuing rebound in aviation, will likely rise more than two percent compared to last year, while emissions from coal - thought by some to have peaked in 2014 - will hit a new record, The Times of Israel reports.

"Oil is more driven by the recovery from Covid, and coal and gas are more driven by events in Ukraine," Glen Peters, research director at CICERO climate research institute in Norway, said.

Global CO2 emissions from all sources - including deforestation and land use - will top out at 40.6 billion tonnes, just below the record level in 2019, the first peer-reviewed projections for 2022 showed.

Despite the wild cards of pandemic recovery and an energy crisis provoked by the war in Ukraine, the uptick in carbon pollution from burning oil, gas and coal is consistent with underlying trends, the data suggested.

And deeply worrying, said Peters, a co-author of the study.

"Emissions are now five percent above what they were when the Paris Agreement was signed" in 2015, he noted.