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Pandemic to drive carbon emissions down 6% this year: WMO

Pandemic to drive carbon emissions down 6% this year: WMO
Emissions rise from a cooling tower at the Jaenschwalde lignite fired power plant, operated by Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG (LEAG), in Peitz, Germany, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. Policies being hammered out in Germany to slash carbon emissions may cost 40 billion euros ($44 billion) over the next four years, underscoring the wide scope of Chancellor Angela Merkels plans to boost climate protection. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

GENEVA, April 22 (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic is expected to drive carbon dioxide emissions down 6% this year, the head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday, in what would be the biggest yearly drop since World War Two.

“This crisis has had an impact on the emissions of greenhouse gases,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

“We estimate that there is going to be a 6% drop in carbon emissions this year because of the lack of emissions from transportation and industrial energy production.” (Reporting by Emma Farge; editing by Jason Neely)

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