David Farrar: Who have been the Paris Agreement Heros and Zeros

The Paris Agreement was done in 2015, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The latest data is for 2024, so I thought it would be interesting to see which countries have had the largest decreases and increases.

Decreases (MT)

1. US -451
2. Japan -260
3. Germany -230
4. UK -141
5. Ukraine –120
6. Venezuela -96
7. France -84
8. Italy -62
9. Spain -58
10. Netherlands -56

So the largest decline on GG emissions has actually been the United States.

Increases (MT)

1. China +2,605
2. India +1,060
3. Indonesia +470
4. Russia +327
5. Iran +261
6. Vietnam +240
7. Iraq +137
8. Turkey +114
9. Pakistan +102
10. Saudi Arabia +86

NZ by the way is 8.3MT lower than in 2015. So our decline is around 1/300 of China’s increase.

How about by percentage

Largest declines

1. Estonia -45%
2. Equatorial Guinea -43%
3. Lebanon -42%
4. Ukraine -38%
5. Venezuela -36%
6. Netherlands -28%
7. UK -27%
8. Bulgaria -26%
9. Germany -25%
10. Czechia -25%

NZ is down 10%.

Largest increases

1. Mongolia +97%
2. Laos +94%
3. Guyana +91%
4. Viet Nam +70%
5. Chad +61%
6. Indonesia +55%
7. North Korea +54%
8. Iraq +50%
9. Mali +49%
10. Togo +49%

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders