Most discussion of net zero in Britain seems strangely parochial. We only really talk about UK emissions, even though they account for only one percent of the global total. But how is the rest of the world getting on at reducing carbon emissions? This morning the International Energy Agency (IEA) published the latest edition of its ‘Net Zero Roadmap’ showing where the world is on reducing carbon emissions and what more it needs to do to eliminate them entirely.
First the good news. The world is on course to invest a record $1.8 trillion (£1.5 trillion) in clean energy over the course of 2023. Now the bad news: in spite of increasing investment in clean energy in recent years it hasn’t stopped the world also reaching record carbon emissions of 37 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022.
Rising global emissions are a reminder of just how difficult it is to decarbonise the global economy
The expanding renewables sector is struggling, so it seems, to counteract a growing global economy.
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