The 35 Countries Cutting the Link Between Economic Growth and Emissions

David Cameron, the UK’s prime minister, has said that there is no need for a “trade-off” between economic growth and reducing carbon emissions.  US president Barack Obama has expressed a similar sentiment.

Recent real world data on the economy and emissions suggests they could be right.  The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that global emissions stalled in both 2014 and 2015, even as the economy grew.

Regional variation
However, it is not enough for global emissions to stall.  In the interests of maintaining a planet where global temperature rise stays well below 2C, and preferably below 1.5C, the UN has said that emissions must fall to net zero in the second half of the century.

The IEA’s analysis masks considerable regional variety.  The global stalling of emissions in 2014 and 2015 is the product of rising emissions in most countries, accompanied by a reduction in others.

Most of the countries that have cut their emissions have also grown their economies.  This means that, for a handful of nations, the process of decoupling emissions from the economy is well underway.

The World Resources Institute, a climate think-tank based in Washington DC, has ... released analysis showing which countries have achieved this decoupling, by comparing BP data on emissions to World Bank data on GDP.

The BP data contains emissions statistics from 67 countries.  Of these, 21 have succeeded in decreasing their emissions while growing their GDP in the period 2000 to 2014.

Read more at The 35 Countries Cutting the Link Between Economic Growth and Emissions