A few days away from the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), I thought I would share some good news. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) – Low Carbon Economy Index – found that the global carbon intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) fell by 2.8%, which can partly be attributed to a decrease in China’s coal consumption equivalent to a 6.4% fall in carbon intensity.
Although this 2.8% decrease is below what is required to stay within the two-degree global warming limit, the good news is that it happened during a year where economic growth was “healthy”. This further illustrates the shift towards decoupling economic growth and global carbon emissions.
This news comes just a few days before the entry into force of the Paris agreement on Friday 4th of November. The achievement of the threshold of 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of total global greenhouse gas emissions in October, a key milestone, should hopefully pave the way for successful negotiations at COP 22 and ambitious climate action in the years ahead!