China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by 8% in the April to June quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, the “sharpest decline in a decade,” the Financial Times reported, citing new analysis for Carbon Brief .
The release continued: “The drop in emissions reflects the dramatic slowdown in China’s economic growth caused by the massive coronavirus lockdowns and the crisis in the heavily indebted real estate sector.
This is the fourth quarter in a row that emissions in China, the world’s largest emitter, have fallen.”
The report added that the latest decline was similar in magnitude to those in the first three months of 2020, when the first wave of Covid-19 effectively shut down China’s economy.
The document said: “An unprecedented heat wave and drought caused further disruptions in the current quarter…
With hydropower generation well below normal levels, analysts predict China will turn to coal to increase electricity supplies, despite the inevitable impact on emissions.”
Photo by Ruiyang Zhang:
