10 Years Post-Paris: How emissions decoupling has progressed

Decoupling — breaking the link between economic growth and emissions — is no longer theoretical. It is happening at scale.

Using the latest Global Carbon Budget data, and a more detailed classification system than previous studies, we assess decoupling across 113 countries representing over 97% of global GDP and 93% of global emissions. Our approach evaluates not just the number of countries decoupling, but their share of global economic output and emissions, and tracks progress across multiple time periods.

In the decade before the Paris Agreement, 32 countries absolutely decoupled emissions from GDP, with 35 more achieving relative decoupling. In the post-Paris decade (2015–2023), these numbers grew to 43 and 40 countries respectively. Today, countries responsible for 46.3% of global GDP and 36.1% of global emissions have absolutely decoupled. Overall, 92% of global GDP and 89% of global emissions now sit in economies that have decoupled in either relative or absolute terms.