National CO₂ budgets (2015–2020) inferred from atmospheric CO₂ observations in support of the global stocktake

7 March 2023

Nations need to track their emissions and removals of CO₂ over time to determine whether emission reduction actions are having the intended effect of reducing national CO₂ emissions. These national CO₂ emissions include fossil fuel emissions as well as emissions and removals of CO₂ from the terrestrial biosphere (terrestrial carbon stocks), which are impacted by deforestation (CO₂ emissions) and reforestation or improved land stewardship (CO₂ removals). In this study, observed variations in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are used to infer "top-down" net emissions and removals of CO₂ for more than 100 countries across the world during 2015–2020. These low latency (~2 years) estimates are performed by an international collaboration of 14 top-down modelling groups and provided with uncertainty estimates. This pilot dataset is intended to compliment the traditional "bottom-up" estimates of national CO₂ inventories, by providing an independent estimate for comparison.

The press release by JPL can be found at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-space-mission-takes-stock-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions-by-countries

The press release by NASA can be found at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-space-mission-takes-stock-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions-by-countries

Contact: Brendan Byrne (brendan.k.byrne@jpl.nasa.gov)