CRU: Covid-19 Shaped a Greener Future

By CRU Senior Cost Economist Ross Cunningham, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor

Global CO2 emissions have been rising since the start of the industrial revolution. This has caused rising global temperatures and severe weather events such as wildfires, flooding and drought. In 2015 the United Nations framework convention on climate change put together the Paris agreement. This was to serve as a long-term temperature goal to keep the increase in global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels. Some nations have had better success than others, and some have pulled out altogether. According to data from the Climate Action Tracker, however, no major industrialized nation is on track to meet its emissions pledge.