A decrease in emissions was only temporary during lockdown

According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the effects of lockdown only had a ‘tiny’ impact on global warming, temporarily slowing the trend which is causing untold damage on our planet.

As reported in Euronews, global carbon dioxide levels are continuing to rise, despite decisive action at the start of the pandemic which saw factories closed, flights grounded and millions of people required to stay at home.

While this action triggered a decrease in emissions, the WMO says it was ‘just a tiny blip on the long-term graph’.

According to the article, the 2020 drop-in emissions follows on from a huge increase during 2019. The global average during that time passed the milestone of 410 parts per million and, since 1990, there has been a 45 percent increase in global warming, with CO2 accounting for four-fifths of the rise.

Professor Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary-General, says: “Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and in the ocean for even longer. The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago when the temperature was 2-3°C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now. But there weren’t 7.7 billion inhabitants.”

“We breached the global threshold of 400 parts per million in 2015. And just four years later, we crossed 410 ppm. Such a rate of increase has never been seen in the history of our records”.

Small changes can make an impact

While the global response to Coronavirus had only a slight impact on climate change, the pandemic has triggered a shift in attitudes, providing a platform for more sustained and ambitious climate action.

At EGO, we believe that making small changes to our routines can have a big impact – particularly when we act as a collective. That’s why we develop world-leading battery technology and create garden tools which deliver petrol-matching performance, without the emissions. In practice, this makes it easier to leave petrol in the past and choose a more sustainable alternative.

To demonstrate the hidden dangers of petrol-powered equipment, we recently published The Report and found that the most popular leaf blower in the UK actually produces more emissions than the average car.

Discover more about our work by downloading The Report here: https://www.challenge2025.eu/thereport/.