Buildings sector emissions fell markedly, helped by a mild winter. The European Union saw a 2.5% or 70 Mt reduction in CO 2 emissions despite oil and gas market disruptions, hydro shortfalls due to drought, and numerous nuclear plants going offline.Power sector emissions growth slowed compared with the average of the past decade but still reached 2.6%. Weaker economic growth, declining construction activity, and strict Covid-19 measures led to reductions in industrial and transport emissions. Growing emissions from combustion were offset by declines from industrial processes. China’s emissions were relatively flat in 2022, declining by 23 Mt or 0.2%.While several regions saw manufacturing curtailments, the global decline was largely driven by a 161 Mt CO 2 decrease in China’s industry emissions, reflecting a 10% decline in cement production and a 2% decline in steel making. Emissions from industry declined by 1.7% to 9.2 Gt last year.Solar PV and wind generation each increased by around 275 TWh, a new annual record. Renewables met 90% of last year’s global growth in electricity generation.

A strong expansion of renewables limited the rebound in coal power emissions.In particular, global emissions from coal-fired electricity and heat generation grew by 224 Mt or 2.1%, led by emerging economies in Asia. The biggest sectoral increase in emissions in 2022 came from electricity and heat generation, whose emissions were up by 1.8% or 261 Mt.Tempering this increase, electric vehicles continued to gain momentum in 2022, with over 10 million cars sold, exceeding 14% of global car sales. Around half of the increase came from aviation, as air travel continued to rebound from pandemic lows, nearing 80% of 2019 levels. Emissions from oil grew even more than emissions from coal, rising by 2.5% or 268 Mt to 11.2 Gt.Amid a wave of gas-to-coal switching during the global energy crisis, CO 2 emissions from coal grew by 1.6% or 243 Mt, far exceeding the last decade’s average growth rate, and reaching a new all-time high of almost 15.5 Gt. Increased emissions from coal more than offset reductions from natural gas.The Asia Pacific region also saw unprecedented reductions (-1.8%). Reductions in emissions from gas were particularly pronounced in Europe (-13.5%). Emissions from natural gas fell by 1.6% or 118 Mt, following continued tightening of supply exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Improvements in the CO 2 intensity of energy use were slightly slower than the past decade’s average. CO 2 growth in 2022 was well below global GDP growth of 3.2%, reverting to a decade-long trend of decoupling emissions and economic growth that was broken by 2021’s sharp rebound in emissions.Of the 321 Mt CO 2 increase, 60 Mt CO 2 can be attributed to cooling and heating demand in extreme weather and another 55 Mt CO 2 to nuclear power plants being offline. Specific challenges in 2022 contributed to the growth in emissions.Industrial production curtailment, particularly in China and Europe, also averted additional emissions. Increased deployment of clean energy technologies such as renewables, electric vehicles, and heat pumps helped prevent an additional 550 Mt in CO 2 emissions. In a year marked by energy price shocks, rising inflation, and disruptions to traditional fuel trade flows, global growth in emissions was lower than feared, despite gas-to-coal switching in many countries.Emissions from energy combustion increased by 423 Mt, while emissions from industrial processes decreased by 102 Mt. Following two years of exceptional oscillations in energy use and emissions, caused in part by the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s growth was much slower than 2021’s rebound of more than 6%. Global energy-related CO 2 emissions grew by 0.9% or 321 Mt in 2022, reaching a new high of over 36.8 Gt.

7 days to die coal map