Historically, growing industry and the economy meant burning more fossil fuels. As the world faces the prospect of needing to reduce carbon emissions, the worry is that it can’t cut emissions without cutting growth. But a new analysis by a London-based think tank has found that the opposite is happening. According to the analysis, breaking the link between economic growth and emissions is no longer just a theoretical possibility; it is happening at scale.
A growing number of countries are achieving growth while they are cutting emissions. According to the analysis by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, 43 countries – including the U.S. and most of Europe – have decoupled economic growth from emissions. These countries are responsible for 46% of the global economy and 36% of global emissions. These 43 countries have become consistent decouplers.
Another 40 countries – which includes China and India – have continued to have increasing emissions, but even these have economies growing faster than emissions. These countries account for another 46% of the world economy. Their decoupling performance is increasing.
For the thirty other countries that were studied, emissions grew faster than their economies. However, these countries amount for a tiny share of the global economy.
The overall message is that the world is shifting toward decoupling emissions and economic growth. Unfortunately, global emissions are still rising, but more slowly than they did a decade ago. Climate change is a global problem so while at the individual country level there is real momentum with regard to decoupling, it needs to be a global phenomenon.
