Fossil Fuel Emissions Dip in 2026, Global Carbon Budget Finds — but Total CO2 Still Hits a Record High
ANTALYA, Türkiye — Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are projected to fall slightly in 2026 for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Global Carbon Budget 2026, released on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, during the COP31 climate summit in Antalya. But once emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes are added in, total global CO2 emissions are still projected to reach a record high of 43.3 billion tonnes this year — and the budget for holding warming to 1.5°C is now down to less than four years of current emissions. Illustration: A fossil fuel power plant shares the landscape with solar panels and wind turbines — clean energy now offsets about two-thirds of the emissions from rising energy demand. What Happened The Global Carbon Project projects that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement will fall by around 0.4% in 2026 to 38.2 billion tonnes (gigatonnes, or GtCO2), down from 38.4 billion tonnes in 2025. That 2025 figure was i...