International Agency: 2022 Had Biggest Release of Carbon Dioxide
2023-03-03
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1An international group based in Paris says the world produced a record amount of carbon dioxide last year.
2The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that the amount of carbon dioxide gas produced around the world rose by 0.9 percent in 2022.
3Burning fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal, releases carbon dioxide.
4The gas is also produced by life on Earth and plants use it to grow.
5Scientists believe carbon dioxide traps heat and increases the world's temperature.
6Some experts say high temperatures can cause bad weather events such as a lack of rain and storms.
7Climate scientists are concerned about the IEA report.
8They say people around the world must cut carbon emissions to reduce the world's temperature.
9Rob Jackson is a professor of earth system science at Stanford University.
10"Any emissions growth - even one percent - is a failure," he said, adding that even keeping emissions the same year to year is a problem.
11"It's cuts or chaos for the planet. Any year with higher coal emissions is a bad year for our health and for the Earth," he said.
12Increased use of coal for energy has caused some of the emissions growth.
13Many countries switched from natural gas to coal as gas prices rose in 2022.
14Natural gas became more costly as many nations stopped buying gas from Russia because of the country's invasion of Ukraine.
15Emissions from oil also went up but were lower than the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
16Much of the increase came as people returned to airplane travel after staying home for much of 2020 and 2021.
17While 2022 set a record, experts said the amount of carbon dioxide was lower than expected.
18They said pandemic restrictions in China, the increase in electric vehicles, solar power and new heating systems prevented emissions from rising higher.
19Fatih Birol is IEA's executive director.
20Birol said "without clean energy, the growth in carbon dioxide emissions would have been nearly three times as high."
21Birol said the use of fossil fuels is still too high and oil companies are making a lot of money.
22The fossil fuel companies, Birol said, need to "take their share of responsibility, in line with their pledges to meet climate goals."
23John Sterman leads the Sloan Sustainability Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
24He said it is still possible to reach climate goals.
25He said countries around the world must stop cutting down trees, continue to help people buy electric cars and pay for new home heating systems.
26He argued that renewable energy needs government payments to support it and businesses that produce carbon dioxide should face increased costs.
27He called it "a massive, massive undertaking."
28I'm Dan Friedell.
1An international group based in Paris says the world produced a record amount of carbon dioxide last year. 2The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that the amount of carbon dioxide gas produced around the world rose by 0.9 percent in 2022. 3Burning fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal, releases carbon dioxide. The gas is also produced by life on Earth and plants use it to grow. 4Scientists believe carbon dioxide traps heat and increases the world's temperature. Some experts say high temperatures can cause bad weather events such as a lack of rain and storms. 5Climate scientists are concerned about the IEA report. They say people around the world must cut carbon emissions to reduce the world's temperature. 6Rob Jackson is a professor of earth system science at Stanford University. "Any emissions growth - even one percent - is a failure," he said, adding that even keeping emissions the same year to year is a problem. 7"It's cuts or chaos for the planet. Any year with higher coal emissions is a bad year for our health and for the Earth," he said. 8Increased use of coal for energy has caused some of the emissions growth. Many countries switched from natural gas to coal as gas prices rose in 2022. Natural gas became more costly as many nations stopped buying gas from Russia because of the country's invasion of Ukraine. 9Emissions from oil also went up but were lower than the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the increase came as people returned to airplane travel after staying home for much of 2020 and 2021. 10While 2022 set a record, experts said the amount of carbon dioxide was lower than expected. They said pandemic restrictions in China, the increase in electric vehicles, solar power and new heating systems prevented emissions from rising higher. 11Fatih Birol is IEA's executive director. Birol said "without clean energy, the growth in carbon dioxide emissions would have been nearly three times as high." 12Birol said the use of fossil fuels is still too high and oil companies are making a lot of money. The fossil fuel companies, Birol said, need to "take their share of responsibility, in line with their pledges to meet climate goals." 13John Sterman leads the Sloan Sustainability Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said it is still possible to reach climate goals. 14He said countries around the world must stop cutting down trees, continue to help people buy electric cars and pay for new home heating systems. He argued that renewable energy needs government payments to support it and businesses that produce carbon dioxide should face increased costs. 15He called it "a massive, massive undertaking." 16I'm Dan Friedell. 17Cathy Bussewitz reported this story for the Associated Press. Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English. 18____________________________________________________ 19Words in This Story 20emission -n. (often pl.) something that is released into the air, such as gasses 21chaos -n. a state of complete disorder and uncontrolled behavior 22pledge -n. a promise 23massive -adj. very large in amount, size or weight 24We want to hear from you. Do you think emissions will go down in 2023? 25We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 26Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.