Global CO2 emissions continue to rise, and there is still “no sign” that the world has reached a peak in fossil fuel emissions. A new report from Global Carbon Budget, which also includes the Flanders Marine Institute (Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee, VLIZ), says that global emissions will amount to 41.6 billion tons of CO2 this year, 1 billion tons more than in 2023.

Despite all climate measures and promises, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels continue to increase. CO2 emissions due to changes in land use (such as deforestation) will also increase in 2024. This is due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has exacerbated drought and emissions from deforestation and forest fires in 2023-2024.

Warming ocean

Moreover, the ocean is becoming less and less able to store CO2. The ocean absorbs approximately 90 percent of all excess heat energy in the atmosphere. As a result, the average surface temperature of the world’s oceans will rise to a record high of 19 degrees Celsius in 2023.

“A warming ocean has less capacity to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and this is what we saw in 2023,” said Peter Landschützer, research director at VLIZ and member of Global Carbon Budget.

Overall, CO2 levels in the atmosphere rose to 422.5 ppm (parts per million) in 2024. That is 2.8 ppm more than in 2023 and 52 percent above pre-industrial levels.

Skepticism

While the climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, is in full swing, think tank Carbon Tracker finds that most companies’ promises to limit methane emissions, a major greenhouse gas, contain “major gaps” that threaten to “exacerbate the climate crisis”.

In recent years, the issue has already received attention at climate summits. At the climate summit in Dubai last year, 52 oil and gas companies committed to achieving virtually zero emissions by 2030. However, this was met with skepticism because there were no concrete plans.

Methane

Major industry companies, including TotalEnergies, Shell, and BP, say they support climate action, while emissions from their products are causing increasingly severe storms, droughts, floods, and heat waves,” said analyst Olivia Bisel, lead author of the ‘Absolute Impact 2024’ report.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2. Since the Industrial Revolution, it has been responsible for 30 percent of global warming. Methane emissions are largely avoidable at no significant cost. Still, they are not decreasing.

Alarming trends

Of all the gases that enter the air due to human actions, methane (CH4) makes the most significant contribution to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane is in much smaller concentrations in the atmosphere than CO2 and lingers there relatively short, but it has a much stronger warming effect per unit. The European Space Agency (ESA) earlier warned that the 2024 global methane budget revealed alarming trends.