UK decouples GDP and GHGs

4 May 2017

The UK has been more successful than other high-income nations in decoupling reducing greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth, according to think tank the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit.

It found that in 2014 – the most recent year for which comprehensive figures are available across the G7 – UK per capita GHG emissions had declined 33% since 1992, while per capita GDP had increased by more than 130%. By contrast, in Japan, the worst-performing G7 country, both per capita GDP and GHG emissions increased, by 83% and 10.5% respectively.

ECIU director Richard Black said the findings demolished the argument that action to curb climate change ruined economies. ‘...