Observed carbon decoupling of subnational production insufficient for net-zero goal by 2050.

ABSTRACT: Historically, economic growth has been closely coupled to carbon emissions responsible for climate change, but to stabilize global mean temperature, net-zero carbon emissions are necessary. Some economies have begun to reduce emissions while continuing to grow, but this decoupling is not fast enough to achieve global climate targets. Subnational climate actions seem to be crucial for the achievement of these targets. Here, we uncover the effectiveness of subnational efforts by estimating decoupling rates and CO2 emission intensities over the last three decades for over 1,500 subnational regions, encompassing 85% of global emissions, using global data on reported economic output and gridded production-based emissions. Thirty percent of regions with available data have fully decoupled, with

SUBMITTER: Zioga M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11551423 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature