On the 12th of December 2015 during the COP21 in Paris, 196 nations agreed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
For transparency and accountability, it is important that the information about the progress reach as much people as possible.
Therefore, this website gives a view on the progress of each country on their path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
United Nations Climate Change:
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century.
The methodology is simple. Given that all countries have signed the Paris Agreement*, global emissions should reach net-zero by the middle of the 21st century. Therefore, taking the change of CO2 emissions from 2015 to the last available data (currently 2024) and linearly extrapolating until 2050, we can have an idea if each country is on the right path to reach net-zero.
Note: some countries signed the agreement, but didn't pledge for net-zero at 2050, for example China (2060) and India (2070). But for the goal of 1.5 degree celsius to be reached, global net-zero needs to be reached in 2050 according to the IPCC. Therefore, to facilitate the comprehension and the comparison of the data vizualisation, the carbon neutral target is 2050 for all countries.
Full write-up, including the linear-extrapolation trade-offs and the carbon-neutrality vs. net-zero distinction, is on the methodology page.
Data Source: Our World In Data / Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” Published online at OurWorldInData.org.
Websites on the same subject
More CO2 visualisations
Each country's pledge
Countries and companies
Climate Action Tracker