Which Countries Reduced Their Carbon Emissions in 2022?
From heatwaves to freezing winters, climate change seems more real than ever. So how much progress have we made as a world to reduce emissions and how have we done in Ireland? In this guide, we walk you through each country’s climate change progress to see who has reduced their carbon emissions the most in 2022.
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Why Do We Need To Reduce Carbon Emissions?
Before we get into which country has reduced their carbon emissions the most in 2022, we need to have a look at what carbon emissions are and why we need to reduce them. In reality, it’s actually very difficult to judge which countries have performed better since there are many ways in which carbon emissions could be defined and recorded.
What Are Carbon Emissions?
Generally speaking, carbon emissions are the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These emissions usually come from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas (from fracking) for energy, but they can also come from deforestation and manufacturing in factories.
Carbon emissions are a major contributor to climate change because they trap heat in the atmosphere and as a result - known as the greenhouse effect - leading to an increase in global temperatures. Reducing carbon emissions is essential for slowing down the effects of climate change.
How much greenhouse gas does the world currently produce? According to the Emissions Gap Report 2022, the world is currently averaging around 54.4 gigatons of CO2 equivalent between 2010 and 2019. This is from all the world’s greenhouse gas emitting activity and is currently the highest it's ever been. However, the average rate of increase for carbon emissions has fallen from 2.6% between 2000 and 2009 a year to 1.1% between 2010 and 2019.
Source: Emissions Gap Report 2022, pg. 5
What Does Net-Zero Carbon Emissions Mean?
Net-zero carbon emissions means that a country is not emitting more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than it is able to remove. There are lots of ways you can reduce carbon emissions:
- Renewable Energy Solutions
Using green sources of energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro power, helps reduce carbon emissions by removing the need to rely on fossil fuels. - Boosting Energy Efficiency
You can boost energy efficiency by making changes to buildings and equipment to use less energy can help to reduce carbon emissions. This can include grants to help increase the BER rating on your home. - Reforestation
Planting trees and increasing the amount of forested land can help to reduce carbon emissions as the tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. - Carbon Capture
Technologies that capture carbon dioxide from power plants and industrial facilities before it is released into the atmosphere, and then store it underground and prevent the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Countries set targets to reach net-zero carbon emissions to combat their own impact on climate change.
What about the Paris Agreement? The Paris Agreement aimed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. It established the ultimate goal of reaching net-zero emissions. by helping developing countries transition to low-carbon solutions to their energy and by committing bigger emitters to limiting their emissions and working towards net-zero carbon emissions.
Read More About the Paris Agreement!
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How Do We Define Carbon Emissions in this Guide?
Unfortunately, there’s no clear way of defining what carbon emissions are in an all-encompassing sense. There are quite a few definitions that we could use to compare the progress of different countries when it comes to their greenhouse gas emissions. However the main three statistics we’ll focus on in this guide will be:
- Annual CO2 Emissions
In measuring the annual CO2 emissions, we’re accounting for both those emissions caused by fossil fuels and those which have come from land use changes. - CO2 Emission Per Capita
In these statistics, we’re looking at the amount of CO2 the average person in a given country releases into the atmosphere. This is part of production-based emissions which leaves out those emissions that occur in trade. - Global Share of CO2 Emissions
The global share of CO2 emissions has changed a lot during the last few decades so it's an important factor to consider. We look here at how much a country is responsible for the global amount of CO2 emissions.
A note on the data Currently, the data for CO2 emissions in 2022 have not been released. In this guide, we have used data from between 2020 to 2021 to represent the changes in emissions between these periods. Some factors, such as continental and world data have been removed to show the rankings for countries alone. The data used comes predominantly from Our World in Data.
It is also important to remember that we are focused on percentage increases and decreases and that, in smaller emitters, a 50% increase might not mean a great increase in carbon emissions overall, just in the amount that country had been producing.
Which Countries Reduced Their Annual CO2 Emissions?
So let’s have a look at which countries increased their annual carbon emissions. These are the emissions that include the burning of fossil fuel and taking land use change into account. These countries are those that have had an overall reduction in the amount of CO2 emissions they produce as opposed to the previous year:
Source: Our World In Data
As you can see, Serbia had the biggest reduction in emissions from 2020 to 2021, with a decrease of at least 40.05%. This has been closely followed by its neighbours Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Out of the bigger emitters, Australia had the biggest reduction in emissions of around 1.58 billion tonnes less than 2020.
Which Countries Increased Their Annual CO2 Emissions?
On the flip side, there were a number of countries who increased their carbon emissions between 2020 and 2021:
Source: Our World In Data
As we can see in the graph, Georgia released more CO2 emissions than it had done in 2020, with an increase of almost 50%! Also among the top culprits were Libya and our very own Ireland, with 27.44% and 20.72% increases respectively.
Which Countries Reduced Their CO2 Emissions Per Capita?
Now let’s have a look at which countries reduced their CO2 emissions per capita. This is where we see how much CO2 the average citizen of a country emits rather than as a whole nation. Here are the countries whose citizens reduced their emissions the most:
Source: Our World In Data
Again we see the biggest reductions coming from the Balkans, with Bosnia-Herzegovina leading the way with a 34.25% drop in emissions per capita from 2020. We can also see Australian and New Zealand citizens leading the developed countries in reducing their emissions.
Which Countries Increased Their CO2 Emissions Per Capita?
Let’s also examine those countries whose carbon emissions per capita increased in the same period:
Source: Our World In Data
We can see Libya with the biggest increase of 25.71% and with both Peru and Ecuador in close second and third. We can also see that there were increases in Turkmenistan again as well.
Which Countries Reduced Their Global Share of CO2 Emissions?
Lastly, let’s look at which countries reduced their overall share of carbon emissions in the world. This focuses on the contribution of each country to carbon emissions rather than the amount of carbon they are producing. Here are the countries who reduced their share the most:
| Country | Carbon Emissions Share in 2020 | Carbon Emissions Share in 2021 | Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0.06% | 0.04% | -62.44% |
| Kosovo | 0.02% | 0.02% | -58.94% |
| Serbia | 0.13% | 0.08% | -51.93% |
| Montenegro | 0.007% | 0.005% | -47.34% |
| Sri Lanka | 0.06% | 0.06% | -9.95% |
| Guyana | 0.01% | 0.01% | -8.79% |
| Slovenia | 0.04% | 0.03% | -7.93% |
| Ukraine | 0.59% | 0.54% | -7.92% |
| Portugal | 0.12% | 0.11% | -7.86% |
| Albania | 0.01% | 0.01% | -7.77% |
Source: Our World In Data
As we can see, it’s almost identical to the top CO2 emissions per capita countries, with the Balkans leading the way again. However, I can also see countries such as Portugal also reducing their share of carbon emissions.
Which Countries Increased their Global Share of CO2 Emissions?
Again, we find the same countries at the top of the list when it comes those who increased their emissions rather than decreased them:
| Country | Carbon Emissions Share in 2020 | Carbon Emissions Share in 2021 | Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Libya | 0.17% | 0.20% | +20.88% |
| Ecuador | 0.10% | 0.11% | +13.91% |
| Peru | 0.13% | 0.15% | +12.58% |
| Guatemala | 0.050% | 0.055% | +9.74% |
| Turkmenistan | 0.20% | 0.22% | +9.46% |
| Bulgaria | 0.10% | 0.11% | +9.36% |
| Tunisia | 0.08% | 0.09% | +8.78% |
| Slovakia | 0.09% | 0.10% | +7.86% |
| Belize | 0.17% | 0.19% | +6.53% |
| Estonia | 0.03% | 0.28% | +6.24% |
Source: Emissions Gap Report 2022, pg. 8
What Are the Conclusions?
Ultimately, from our data and rankings, we can see that Bosnia-Herzegovina managed to reduce their carbon emissions the most both as a nation and as citizens, however Libya has seen the biggest increases.
These results could have been due to a number of factors such as the energy price increases in Europe and the lack of a stable environmental policy in Libya so, although these are the facts, the reasons are very complex.
What About the Big Carbon Emitters?
It’s also worth looking at how the biggest emitters fared when it comes to their carbon emissions since they have the biggest impact. According to the Emissions Gap Report 2022, the biggest emitters are China, the United States, India, the EU, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, and International Transport. According to this report, here are the percentage increases of greenhouse gas emissions between 2019 and 2021:
| Country/Entity | Percentage Change in Emissions |
|---|---|
| China | +5.9% |
| United States | -6.7% |
| India | +3.2% |
| EU | -4.0% |
| Russia | +3.9% |
| Brazil | +4.9% |
| International Transport | -15.9% |
| Indonesia | +6.8% |
Source: Emissions Gap Report 2022, pg. 8
In the case of International Transport, the huge decrease is because of the decrease in international travel due to COVID restrictions and in 2022 it’s likely that figure will have had a significant increase.
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