Regions Can Reduce Carbon While Sustaining Economic Growth, Study Finds

• Economies can grow if they decouple from CO2 emissions.
• North America and Asia show fluctuating decoupling patterns, while the European region has remained steady over the years.

Economic progress and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Potsdam.

The study examined how carbon emissions and economic growth are linked in about 1,500 regions worldwide over the past 30 years and found that 30% of these regions have achieved economic growth while reducing carbon emissions.

This is significant progress towards achieving the Paris Climate Agreement's goal of limiting climate change. But, the researchers say that the current pace of this "decoupling"(separating carbon emissions from economic growth) is not fast enough to meet the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

“We found that 30 percent of the regions with available data have fully decoupled carbon emissions from economic growth. Regions with high incomes and a history of carbon-intensive industries, as well as those with significant shares of service and manufacturing sectors were particularly successful in reducing carbon emissions while still experiencing economic growth,“ says Anders Levermann, co-author and head of the research department “Complexity Science” at PIK. “A stabilization of the global mean temperature is only possible with net-zero carbon emissions. That means that if economies want to grow they need to be decoupled from CO2 emissions.”

Developed regions or regions with high income have seen success in reducing carbon emissions, particularly in large service and manufacturing sectors. European regions have been more successful than other parts of the world, while North America and Asia have had more inconsistent results, although progress has been made in the last 10 years.

“Developed countries appear likely to fulfill these targets ahead of others, but overall recent trends appear inadequate for achieving the net-zero by mid-century in most regions,“ concludes co-author Maximilian Kotz , PIK guest researcher and PIK scientist at the time the study was conducted. “If current decoupling rates continue, less than half of subnational regions will be able to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Therefore, all levels of government need to step up and developed countries in particular should increase their efforts and investment in the energy transition in the developing world in order to meet net-zero targets globally,” he says.

To learn more about the study, click here.

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Source: The University of Potsdam