IEA warns of post-pandemic emissions rebound

(Reuters, 11 Jan 2021) As economic damage from the COVID-19 crisis wanes "the early data ... confirm our worry that global emissions in 2021 are set to rebound", says International Energy Agency head.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Monday warned that global emissions that have been hollowed out by the COVID-19 pandemic are set to rebound in 2021 unless governments take swift policy action.

Emissions of CO2 declined by 7 percent in 2020 to levels last seen a decade ago, agency chief Fatih Birol told reporters, but as the economic damage from the crisis wanes "the early data ... confirm our worry that global emissions in 2021 are set to rebound".

While the data would not be released by the group until April, the IEA said that China - the first major economy to emerge from strict lockowns - is already topping pre-virus emissions.

Birol announced that the IEA's first comprehensive road map for the entire global energy sector to reach net zero emissions by 2050 would be published in May.

The report is meant to be a primer for countries set to convene for a climate summit in Glasgow in Novemeber.

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Reuters, 11 Jan 2021: IEA warns of post-pandemic emissions rebound

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