China’s CO2 emissions fell by nearly 8 percent from March to May due to China’s strict lockdowns against coronavirus outbreaks. This was reported by researchers from Carbon Monitor.
The Chinese industry was affected by those lockdowns, which reduced the energy demand, for example. The cooling of the Chinese real estate market also resulted in lower emissions, because there was less demand for cement, steel and concrete. The production of these building materials requires a lot of energy.
China is the world’s largest emitter of CO2. Due to the country’s decreased emissions, global CO2 emissions also fell slightly during that period, according to the research firm. Beijing has promised that China’s emissions will peak in 2030 and then fall. The world’s second-largest economy aims to be climate neutral by 2060 at the latest.
In the first two months of this year, Chinese emissions rose by 2 percent. From March, large cities such as Shanghai went into lockdown because of the advance of the omikron variant of the coronavirus. These lockdowns have now largely been lifted.