Climate Progress Is Real, But the Job Isn’t Done

More than 10 years on from the Paris Agreement, an infographic shows how climate action has defied expectations, while its creators call for more to be done.

“In 2015, nearly 200 countries endorsed the Paris Agreement, committing to limiting heating to ‘well below 2°C,’” the UK’s Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit writes, describing the past 10 years as “a decade that defied predictions.”

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this infographic packs in both visuals and detailed analysis. Highlights include:

• In 2015, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast annual additions of 34 gigawatts of new solar and 40 to 45 GW of wind energy. The ECIU infographic states that “THE SUN HAS WON,” the forecast now overshot by 1,500%, with 553 GW of solar installed in 2024. That year also saw 120 GW of new wind additions.

• While experts in 2014—and Donald Trump today—can be quoted deploring the high cost of renewables, levelized cost of electricity metrics show solar and wind projects becoming significantly cheaper than fossil energy.

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development previously said investments in clean energy were declining due to regulatory uncertainty, but the IEA shows clean energy investments reaching US$2.2 trillion. (Some experts say the IEA’s calculation is inflated, though investments are still on an upward trajectory.)

• In 2016, IEA projected EVs accounting for 20% market share by 2030 and 40% by 2040. The 20% milestone was passed in 2024 and EVs are now expected to reach 40% by 2030—a decade ahead of the earlier projections.

• Oil major BP projected in 2015 that carbon emissions would increase 25% between 2013 and 2035. ECIU says emissions rose 1.2% from 2015 to 2023, compared to 18.4% from 2005 to 2014. But the Paris Agreement emphasizes that emissions must reach a sustained decline—not just plateau.

• In 2014, then-UN climate secretary Christina Figueres predicted a net-zero world will happen either because “nature will force us” or “policy will guide us,” with policy delivering better outcomes. Since then, emissions from land use and deforestation have declined 33% since 2014, even though “finance for forests and ecosystems still falls far short of what’s required,” the ECIU writes.