Coronavirus restrictions led to a record 7 percent fall in global carbon emissions last year, but the drop will be short-lived unless efforts to phase out fossil fuel are intensified, said a study by scientists in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The study by scientists from institutions in Australia, Britain, France, Norway, and the United States, confirmed preliminary estimates from May last year that global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels fell by 7 percent, or 2.6 billion tonnes, to 34 billion tonnes...