> (when climate change was arguably worse since there was no dent in emissions by lockdowns)

I am not an expert on any of this, but my understanding is that climate change is dependent on the TOTAL level of CO2 in the atmosphere, not the rate of adding CO2. Thus, as 2020 was obviously not net-zero, 2021 is worse than 2020 is worse than 2019. I think many people misunderstand this fundamental point, maybe because they link CO2 to air pollution, which reacts much faster (because of wind, rain, etc.).