At the current rate of emissions, it is estimated a 50% chance that global average temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees consistently in about six years.

• This year, possibly, will be the first time the threshold of 1.5 degrees is crossed.

The carbon budget: It’s the amount of CO2 emissions that will result in limiting global warming to a given level, in this case, the Paris accord’s target of 1.5 degrees C over pre-industrial levels.

Key Findings:

• Globally, fossil-based CO2 emissions are set to touch a record high of 37.4 billion tonnes this year.
• The largest contributions to global fossil CO2 emissions were China (31%), the USA (13%), India (8%), and the European Union (7%), in 2023. 
  • These four regions account for 59% of global fossil CO2 emissions, while the rest of the world contributed 41%.
• Global emissions from land-use changes like deforestation have dropped 20% over ten years.
  • Reforestation and new forests offset about half of permanent deforestation emissions globally.
• The land and ocean CO2 sinks combined took around half of the total CO2 emissions, despite being negatively impacted by climate change.