Low Carbon Economy Index 2018: time to get on with it

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Low Carbon Economy Index (LCEI) 2018 finds that national decarbonization rates do not match the level needed to achieve commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change. The top performing countries on the Index are China, Mexico, Argentina and the UK, all of which grew their economies while reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The report titled, ‘Time to Get on with It: The LCEI 2018: Tracking the Progress G20 Countries Have Made to Decarbonize Their Economies,’ finds that the gap between the current decarbonization rate and the rate needed to limit global warming to 2°C above preindustrial levels is widening. In 2017, no country was on track with the decarbonization rate needed to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goal. Over the past four years, the Index reports that many countries have cut the carbon intensity of their economies but the average decarbonization rate of 2.6 percent annually “remains less than half of what is required.”