COVID recovery to drive all-time emissions high: IEA

COVID recovery to drive all-time emissions high: IEA

PARIS: Carbon emissions are set to hit an all-time high by 2023 as just two percent of pandemic recovery finance is being spent on clean energy, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.

Countries have allocated more than $16 trillion (14 trillion euros) in fiscal support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly in the form of emergency financial help for workers and businesses.

The IEA's Sustainable Recovery Tracker found that just $380 billion of this had been provided for clean energy projects. If all spending plans were to be realised, the intergovernmental body said, global carbon emissions would hit record levels in 2023 and continue to rise in the following years.

Overall carbon pollution would be 3.5 billion tons higher than a scenario in which economies are compliant with the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal of the Paris climate deal, it said. "Since the COVID-19 crisis erupted, many governments may have talked about the importance of building back better for a cleaner future, but many of them are yet to put their money where their mouth is," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

The United Nations says that to keep the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature goal in play, emissions must on average fall more than