{"id":19011,"date":"2023-02-23T00:28:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T23:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.organisator.ch\/?p=19011"},"modified":"2023-02-24T08:01:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T07:01:13","slug":"wirtschaftskrisen-koennen-die-dekarbonisierung-beschleunigen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.organisator.ch\/en\/sustainability\/2023-02-23\/wirtschaftskrisen-koennen-die-dekarbonisierung-beschleunigen\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic crises can accelerate decarbonization"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During economic crises, less energy is consumed - and CO2 emissions fall accordingly. (Image: Pixabay.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\"Building back better\" is a popular buzzword in times of crisis, but is it realistic? A new study published in February in the journal \"Nature<\/a>\" was published, examined the impact of economic crises on decarbonization and showed that while crises do not automatically lead to structural changes and long-term decarbonization, they have played an important role in initiating systemic change. \"Almost all countries that reached a peak in their CO2 emissions did so during an economic crisis,\" says first author Germ\u00e1n Bersalli of the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam, Germany. With colleagues from RIFS and ETH Zurich, he studied the relationship between emissions peaks and economic crises in the 45 countries that were members of the OECD and G20 between 1965 and 2019.\r\n

Decarbonization thanks to economic crises?<\/h3>\r\nOver the past 50 years, 28 of these countries reached their emissions peak, 26 of them just before or during the major economic crises of that period. These include the 1973-75 and 1979-80 oil crises, the collapse of the Soviet Union (1989-91), and the global financial crisis (2007-09). Even as countries' economies rebounded, emissions did not rise back to their pre-crisis levels. This positive development contrasts with the global trend: worldwide carbon dioxide emissions increased steadily over the period, with only small dips during the crises.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n
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Long-term effects of the oil crisis in Germany (top), the collapse of the USSR in Lithuania (middle) and the financial crisis in the USA (bottom) on CO2 emissions: These remain low despite rising GDP. (Graphics: IASS Potsdam)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

The mechanisms behind lower emissions<\/h3>\r\nThe researchers describe three mechanisms that have led to lower emissions over the long term:\r\n