Global carbon emissions are estimated to touch a record high by the end of 2025, according to a study whose release was timed to coincide with the COP 30 underway in Brazil. The US registered the greatest increase over 2024 at 1.9 per cent, followed by India at 1.4 per cent and China and the EU at 0.4 per cent. However, the report, produced by a team of 130 scientists working with the Global Carbon Project, points out that emissions from India and China increased much more slowly compared to 2024, largely because of the large-scale deployment of renewable energy. A relatively cooler summer and an early monsoon also meant that India’s electricity-sector emissions in the first half of this year declined compared to the same period in 2024. The slowdown should also be seen as a part of a longer trend of reduction in the carbon intensity of the country’s economy —the average growth of GHG emissions came down to 3.6 per cent in 2015-2024 from 6.4 per cent in 2004-2015. In contrast, the US figures indicate a reversal of a nearly two-decade-long downward trend in the country’s emissions.
The message should not be lost on the negotiators who have assembled in Brazil. COP 30 needs to provide a roadmap for the use of clean energy. At the same time, it’s also time that more investments are made in securing lives and livelihoods against floods, droughts, cyclones, the ravages of global warming.
