International Agency: 2022 Had Biggest Release of Carbon Dioxide

International Agency: 2022 Had Biggest Release of Carbon Dioxide

An international group based in Paris says the world produced a record amount of carbon dioxide last year.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that the amount of carbon dioxide gas produced around the world rose by 0.9 percent in 2022.

Burning 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.

Scientists 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.

Climate scientists are concerned about the IEA report. They say people around the world must cut carbon emissions² to reduce the world's temperature.

Rob 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.

"It's cuts or chaos³ for the planet. Any year with higher coal emissions is a bad year for our health and for the Earth," he said.

Increased 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 costly⁴ as many nations stopped buying gas from Russia because of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Emissions 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.

While 2022 set a record, experts said the amount of carbon dioxide was lower than expected. They said pandemic restrictions⁵ in China, the increase in electric vehicles, solar power and new heating systems prevented emissions from rising higher.

Fatih 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."

Birol 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."

John Sterman leads the Sloan Sustainability Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said it is still possible to reach climate goals.

He 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.

He called it "a massive, massive undertaking⁶."

Words in This Story

emission¹ –n. (often pl.) something that is released into the air, such as gasses

chaos –n. a state of complete disorder⁷ and uncontrolled behavior

pledge –n. a promise

massive –adj. very large in amount, size or weight

1 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

7 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。