Average daily CO2 emissions from 5 February to 6 May 2020 (red area) and average of the previous years during the same period (grey area) for three European cities. The dark grey horizontal bars cover periods of official lockdown, while the light grey bars indicate periods of partial lockdown or general restrictions (for example, school closures, reductions in personal contact, mobility constraints). Data: Integrated Carbon Observation System, 2020. Graphic: WMO

Carbon dioxide levels continue at record levels, despite COVID-19 lockdown – “The COVID-19 pandemic is not a solution for climate change”

GENEVA, 23 November 2020 (WMO) – The industrial slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not curbed record levels of greenhouse gases which are trapping heat in the atmosphere, increasing temperatures, and driving more extreme weather, ice melt, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The lockdown has cut emissions […]

Carbon emissions (CO2e) from different modes of transportation. Non-pooled ride hailing, like with Uber and lyft, emits the most carbon, by a wide margin. Graphic: UCS

Taking an Uber or Lyft pollutes more than driving, California finds – “For a one-mile trip, on average there’s another 0.7 miles of driving around to deliver that trip”

By Tony Barboza 7 March 2020 (Los Angeles Times) – Behind the tap-of-your-phone convenience of hailing an Uber or Lyft lies an inconvenient truth: Such rides generate more carbon emissions than simply driving yourself. The increased pollution comes primarily from “deadheading,” that is, drivers traveling to pick up a passenger or cruising the streets while […]

Net U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by sector, 2005-2019. Graphic: Rhodium Group

Preliminary U.S. carbon emissions estimates for 2019 – Coming up short on climate targets

By Trevor Houser and Hannah Pitt 7 January 2020 (Rhodium Group) – After a sharp uptick in 2018, we estimate that US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell by 2.1% last year based on preliminary energy and economic data. This decline was due almost entirely to a drop in coal consumption. Coal-fired power generation fell by […]

Globally averaged CO2 mole fraction (a) and its growth rate (b) from 1984 to 2018. Increases in successive annual means are shown as shaded columns in (b). The red line in (a) is the monthly mean with the seasonal variation removed; the blue dots and line depict the monthly averages. Observations from 129 stations have been used for this analysis. Graphic: WMO

Greenhouse gas concentrations in atmosphere reached yet another high in 2018

GENEVA, 25 November 2019 (WMO) – Levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise […]

Graphs showing change in global human activities from 1979 to the present. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2019 / BioScience

More than 11,000 scientists issue warning of climate emergency – “An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis”

5 November 2019 (BioScience) – Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth […]

Map showing 2015–2019 five-year average temperature anomalies relative to the 1981-2010 average. Data: NASA GISTEMP v4. through June 2019. Graphic: WMO

Landmark “United in Science” report brings together world’s leading climate science organizations

NEW YORK, 22 September 2019 (WMO) – The world’s leading climate science organizations have joined forces to produce a landmark new report  [pdf] for the United Nations Climate Action Summit, underlining the glaring – and growing – gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality. The report, United in Science, includes details on the […]

Gas storage tanks receiving natural gas from feeder pipelines before compression for transport in high-pressure pipelines at the Haynseville shale formation, Texas. This photo was taken with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera tuned to the infrared spectrum of methane, allowing visualization of methane, which is invisible in the normal camera view and to the naked eye. Photo: Sharon Wilson / Howarth, 2019 / Biogeosciences

U.S. proposes easing rules on methane emissions from oil and gas production – Latest rollback “highlights the Trump administration’s complete contempt for our climate”

By Ellen Knickmeyer 29 August 2019 WASHINGTON (AP) – Oil and gas companies could face far looser oversight of emissions of potent climate-changing methane gas under a proposal expected from the Trump administration as soon as Thursday, oil industry and environmental groups said. The government’s plan would ease requirements on oil and gas sites to monitor for […]

Cover of “State of India’s Environment 2019: In Figures”. Graphic: Centre for Science and Environment

Air pollution kills 100,000 children in India every year, study finds – “The country’s progress in renewable energy in 2018-19 has also been dismal”

5 June 2019 (AFP) – The noxious air hanging over India’s towns and cities kills more than 100,000 children under five every year, a damning study published Wednesday for World Environment Day found. India has repeatedly failed to address environmental concerns. Last year a UN report found 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities […]

Global average abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2018. Graphic: NOAA

Graph of the Day: NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, 1700-2018

30 May 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – Last week, the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory posted its annual update to the NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the climate-warming influence of long-lived trace gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. To nobody’s surprise, the AGGI continued its inexorable rise in 2018 because, for another year, […]

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