The pace at which carbon dioxide is increasing in the Earth's atmosphere slowed significantly according to data recorded at the remote Mauna Loa observatory for March 2022. The following chart shows the latest development for the trailing twelve month average of year-over-year change in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide:

That change interrupts what had been a robust upturn in CO₂ emissions, driven primarily by China's record coal spree in recent months. The new change however coincides with indications that China's economic growth has sharply slowed in 2022, as indicated by its negative year-over-year growth rate for imports from the United States for December 2021 and January 2022.

That reduction is attributable to China's ongoing struggle with COVID-19, which disrupted economic activity in the Earth's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in both December 2021 and January 2021. Allowing for the lag in China's carbon dioxide emissions to diffuse into the Earth's air, we think that economic slowdown is now showing up in March 2022's atmospheric CO₂ measurements. With China's government still committed to its COVID-zero policies and still locking down millions of China's productive population for weeks at a time as coronavirus infections continue to spread in the country despite its measures, we anticipate reduced carbon dioxide emissions will show up in the Earth's air from the world's biggest carbon emitter over the next several months.