2022 annual emission of CO₂

science
Author

Ralph-Uwe Börner

Published

January 12, 2023

According to the World Economic Forum, global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels hits a record high in 2022 (link).

The fossil fuel based emissions in 2022 are estimated to remain at a high level of about 36.6 Gt/a.

To put the numbers into perspective, David Ho has proposed a time machine which takes us back a certain amount of time relativ to the annual CO₂ emission.

What is CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) able to contribute?

The Global CCS Institute reports a 44% increase of all CCS facilities under development with a projected total of 244 Mt/a. However, only 30 facilities were in operation and were able to capture 42.58 Mt/a.

Using David’s time machine idea, this is equivalent to about 10 hours of the annual CO₂ emission.

If all projected facilities were in operation, these 244 Mt/a would equal 2.4 days of annual emissions.