Fossil CO2 emissions decrease in 2026

alex_duf

Let's hope it's not just a temporary dip, I'm not holding my breath but we could really do with some longer term good news at the moment.

Devasta

One of the things that COVID make crystal clear to me is that radical changes for the better are much more straightforward than people think, and the only reason they don't happen is the people in charge couldn't be bothered. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/chinas... There is no excuse for every government in the world to not be covering every bit of rooftop or scrap land with solar. China is losing money on panels at the moment they have such production capacity. Its free money for anyone country who wants to do it.

newsclues

When Ukraine burns a Russian refinery, do those emissions get counted? Same with burning tankers in Iran...

api

If we are just leveling off that’s a cause for celebration. I realize anything other than doom wallowing is verboten on the Internet but it is a massive achievement, especially since global economic growth continues which means we are actually switching (renewables, nuclear, EVs) and decoupling (less energy per $ gdp). Now for the other side of the curve!

yodsanklai

Pretty ironic that part of this is due to Trump: reducing global trade with tariffs, blocking Ormuz...

passwordoops

Emissions budgets are calculated using accounting best practice, which are not designed for full transparency (ref: the creative accounting used to obscure every financial scandal and economic bubble). THIS is the curve that matters: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/global.html The Iran blip is clearly seen, but it's just that - a blip. Levels continue to steadily rise.

bamboozled

Say what you like but this is great news. Let’s keep going.

stuaxo

Now: Let's skip the AI build out and keep things in the right direction.

singpolyma3

This is good, but also total emissions still expected to increase? Yeesh

hollowonepl

0.4% sounds like one solid volcano eruption and all that effort is gone.

baalimago

Perhaps Trump was the dark knight of climate change activism all along?

kpmcc

The headline buries the lede. "With emissions from land-use change (such as deforestation) projected to increase slightly this year, total CO2 emissions are projected to be 43.3 billion tonnes in 2026 – up from 42.8 billion tonnes last year." Total annual CO2 emissions are projected to increase by ~half a billion tonnes as a result of land use changes.

steveBK123

What's interesting in the numbers is that despite the relative political philosophy and fanfare, on a % basis.. the US reduced emissions about the same as the EU and both reduced them more than China.

genxy

In 10 years, there's about a 10% chance that cancer won't be a problem for anyone.

sandworm101

Key word "fossil CO2". That doesn't include the burning of wood such as in the UK's Drax power station. Nor does it include any populations that have backtracked from fossil fuels to wood for cooking/heat.

brudgers

If I were the Economics Fairy I’d point out: Fossil fuels increased in price in 2026.

kieranmaine

Looking towards innovations that accelerate the energy transition, I have a question for the startups and founders on hackernews: Is anyone working on a "solid state" or "caloric" (I'm not sure which terms is the best to use) heat pump and do you have any insight on when these will come to market? I want to replace the gas boiler in my apartment wiht a heat pump, but it will most likely have to be wall mounted and produce too much noise, which makes is infeasible. I've been reading about how future heat pumps will use "magnetocaloric, electrocaloric, elastocaloric, and barocaloric" effects to shrink the size, weight and noise of a heat pump.