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Climate chronicles

Global carbon emissions in 2023

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, pages 253–254 (2024)Cite this article

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Global CO2 emissions for 2023 increased by only 0.1% relative to 2022 (following increases of 5.4% and 1.9% in 2021 and 2022, respectively), reaching 35.8 Gt CO2. These 2023 emissions consumed 10–66.7% of the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C, suggesting permissible emissions could be depleted within 0.5–6 years (67% likelihood).

Key points

  • Data from the Carbon Monitor indicate 35.8 Gt CO2 were emitted globally in 2023.

  • Although the trend is upwards, the pace of growth has been slowing, suggesting global emissions might have plateaued.

  • India overtook the EU as the third highest emitter globally.

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Fig. 1: Global CO2 emissions 1970–2023.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Zhu Liu & Zhu Deng

  2. Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Zhu Liu & Zhu Deng

  3. Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Zhu Liu

  4. Alibaba Cloud, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Zhu Deng

  5. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Steven J. Davis

  6. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement LSCE, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Philippe Ciais

Authors
  1. Zhu Liu
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  2. Zhu Deng
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  3. Steven J. Davis
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  4. Philippe Ciais
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhu Liu.

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Liu, Z., Deng, Z., Davis, S.J. et al. Global carbon emissions in 2023. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 253–254 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00532-2

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