Costa Rica, Denmark and the UK have all set economy-wide net-zero emissions targets for 2050. These commitments to full decarbonization build upon the decades of efforts that these countries have already made toward energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable development. More countries should follow their lead in setting explicit decarbonization targets.
Getting Onto a Pathway for Decarbonization
Some countries are positioned particularly well for decarbonization. But that doesn’t mean that other countries can’t also lead, even if they haven’t yet built as strong a foundation through previous actions. By learning from the leaders, all countries can chart a course to a zero-carbon future.
EXPLORE RELATED DATA
Explore timeseries data for all countries in the maps below to compare progress on “optimize, electrify and decarbonize.” The maps present open-source datasets available on Resource Watch that are similar to the IEA data referenced above (but because the sources, methods and metrics are different, the numbers do not match precisely). The code that was used to process these datasets is available here.
Optimize: National Annual Rate of Change in Energy Intensity (%)
Electrify: National Electricity Consumption as Percent of Total Primary Energy Consumption (%)
Decarbonize: National Renewable Energy Share of Total Energy Consumption (%)
TAGS: decarbonization, energy, renewable energy
