The 2026 Global Carbon Budget projects 38.2 billion tonnes of fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions this year. Emissions from oil are projected to decrease by 1.9% – likely a short-term response to the energy shock triggered by the Iran conflict. While global energy demand continues to rise, two thirds of the increase is being met […]

The 2025 Global Carbon Budget projects 38.1 billion tonnes of fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions this year. Decarbonisation of energy systems is progressing in many countries – but this is not enough to offset the growth in global energy demand. With projected emissions from land-use change (such as deforestation) down to 4.1 billion tonnes in […]

The 2024 Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 37.4 billion tonnes, up 0.8% from 2023. Despite the urgent need to cut emissions to slow climate change, the researchers say there is still “no sign” that the world has reached a peak in fossil CO2 emissions. With projected emissions from land-use change […]

Key messages The annual Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 36.8 billion tonnes in 2023, up 1.1% from 2022. Fossil CO2 emissions are falling in some regions, including Europe and the USA, but rising overall – and the scientists say global action to cut fossil fuels is not happening fast enough […]

The fate of carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation determines the rate of increase of atmospheric CO2 increase, and in turn, climate change. The physics-based models used for future climate projections predict a weakening of both land and ocean sinks (e.g. absorption)  in response to a warming climate, resulting in a steeper rise […]

The Synthesis Report is a summary of the latest (sixth) round of IPCC assessments of climate change, its impacts and the solutions available. The IPCC says global warming has created “increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world” – but “urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for all”. […]

Massive deployment of CDR is critical to reach net zero emissions and stabilise the climate as quickly as possible. The report highlights that current CDRs which takes up two billion tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2) per year, are primarily due to conventional land management such as reforestation. Novel technologies, such as direct air capture, are still negligible, […]

If current emissions levels persist, there is now a 50% chance that global warming of 1.5°C will be exceeded in nine years. The new report projects total global CO2 emissions of 40.6 billion tonnes (GtCO2) in 2022. This is fuelled by fossil CO2 emissions which are projected to rise 1.0% compared to 2021, reaching 36.6 […]

In the following article, Professor Pierre Friedlingstein, of Exeter’s Mathematics department and Global Systems Institute (GSI), and Alissa Haward, GSI Project Manager, discuss the findings and their relevance to the climate crisis. Our analysis from the Global Carbon Budget, published this week concludes that if we want to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 we must cut global CO2 emissions by about […]

Fossil carbon emissions dropped by 5.4% in 2020 amid Covid lockdowns, but the new report projects an increase of 4.9% this year (4.1% to 5.7%) to 36.4 billion tonnes. Emissions from coal and gas use are set to grow more in 2021 than they fell in 2020, but emissions from oil use remain below 2019 […]

Professor Pierre Friedlingstein leads the Global Carbon Budget and has contributed to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. He studies the terrestrial biosphere’s response to climate change, and had made multiple key contributions to our understanding in this vital field. The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of leading scientists, and is the oldest scientific academy […]