The economic slowdown caused by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) will lead to a 13% reduction in Belgium’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, according to National Planning Office figures quoted on Saturday by Le Soir.
Most of the reduction will be in energy (-24%), industrial processes (-27%), and, to a lesser extent, transport (-9%).
With the reopening, the situation will change from next year, with emissions going up in all sectors until 2023, when they are expected to stabilise or go down. Belgian emissions are expected to decrease by only 5% for the entire 2019-2025 period.
Unless there is a change in policy, this reduction will not be enough to meet the objectives of a 35% reduction by 2030, compared to 2005, and carbon neutrality by 2050, Le Soir noted.
At the global level, “the break in terms of CO2 emissions will have only an extremely slight effect on CO2 concentration, which measures the accumulation of this gas in the atmosphere and is the essential determinant of the deterioration of global warming,” climatologist Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele noted in Le Soir.
The Brussels Times
