Global Carbon Emissions are at an All Time High

In a recent report about global climate change, scientists stated carbon emissions reached record highs in 2018. The unprecedented growth of CO2 emissions has serious implications on human and environmental health. International meetings surrounding the concern demonstrate many countries falling well off targeted goals from the 2015 Paris climate talk for reducing CO2 emissions

Urgent actions are needed to reduce carbon emissions in order to help combat global warming on an international scale. China seems to lead the charge due to the recent economic downturn, which has seemed to turn heads away from regulatory air pollution standards. China is not the only country, however, that has failed to hit their emission goals.

Source: Global Carbon Project

Developing countries are obligated to serve their rapidly growing populations, and cutting carbon emissions leads to a number of real-world problems. Global CO2 emissions vary depending on geographical location, growing energy demands to sustain population growth, among several other factors. Filling in the gaps becomes extremely difficult when we begin to assess different countries' needs.

Even though renewable energy sources continue to become more popular, these specific strategies are simply not sustainable enough to meet our worlds vastly growing energy needs. Instead of turning to renewable energy sources as alternatives, these strategies are more so just filling the gaps to meet such growing demands.

The scary fact of the matter, too, is carbon emissions have no foreseen end in sight. This will have drastic impacts on society in coming years if immediate policy revisions are not enacted. Beginning in 2020, more aggressive climate action focusing on implementation science efforts may be a good start toward getting back on track. A holistic approach of measuring and reporting overall greenhouse gas emissions by country would allow for comparative analyses of emissions as well as growth/reduction levels.

Most of the world remains firmly committed to tackling climate change, but many countries are not on pace to meet their relatively modest 2015 Paris pledges. The Trump administration has continued to roll back environmental regulations and to insist that it will exit the Paris agreement in 2020. Brazil, which has struggled to reduce deforestation efforts, has recently stated a roll back on protections on their beloved Amazon.

It is clear that global carbon emissions must be curbed drastically by 2030 or the implications of climate change will become seriously apparent, as if they haven't already. Sustainable efforts must be undertaken by all stakeholders to work together and collaboratively agree upon probable proposals and comprehensive reduction measures. Let's hope that national climate talks have a sense of urgency to at least reduce carbon emissions from their current levels.