According to an analysis by independent research company Rhodium Group, in 2020 greenhouse emissions fell by more than 10% in the USA.

Planet-heating emissions in the US fell by more than 10% in 2020, a record drop generated by extraordinary reductions in travel and industrial activity– the largest fall since World War II. Here are the latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP)

While a drop in emissions in a single year will not slow the pace of global warming, Carbonbrief.com informs about what researchers say: “there is a unique opportunity to secure long-term emissions cuts by following an economic recovery aligned with tackling climate change”.

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The peak of the decrease in emissions occurred in the first half of April 2020, the researchers say. This happened when lockdown measures in response to Covid-19 were at their most comprehensive – particularly in Europe and the US, they note: “at that point, daily global fossil CO2 emissions were around 17% below their average 2019 levels.”

The researchers estimate that CO₂ from fossil fuels and industry (FF&I) has declined by 2.4GtCO2 compared to 2019. “This has never been seen before”, state researchers to Carbonbrief.com, “this is equivalent to a drop of 7% in global emissions”. Dr Glen Peters, research director at the Centre for International Climate Research (CICERO) in Norway, told a press briefing: “You’d have to go back to 1945 – the second world war – to see a relative drop bigger than this 7%.”

To have a visual idea, the video below – by French-Canadian scientist Marie Corinne Lyne Le Quéré – shows how daily CO₂ emissions changed as individual countries locked down in response to Covid-19 throughout 2020. The most intense blue shading shows the largest changes.