Read: Britain is second best in the world at cutting carbon emissions
Britain has one of the world’s best records on cutting emissions since the Paris agreement on climate change five years ago but reductions globally must increase tenfold to meet the treaty’s targets, a study has found.
UK carbon dioxide emissions declined by an average of 3.6 per cent a year during 2016-19 compared with an average fall of 0.8 per cent among high-income countries. Only Ukraine had a faster rate of decline among those, down 4 per cent a year, according to the research led by University of East Anglia and Stanford University
China’s emissions rose by 0.4 per cent a year over the same period, India’s by 5.2 per cent and Russia’s by 0.2 per cent. Global emissions rose by 0.7 per cent per year during 2016-19 but last year fell 7 per cent owing to the pandemic, which reduced travel and economic activity.