“Economic growth is the driver of emissions in OECD partner countries”, says the 2025 Climate Action Monitor report, of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), released this Thursday.
According to the OECD, the environmental impact of strong economic growth and population growth outweighs improvements in energy efficiency in partner countries. The organization calculates that, between 2015 and 2023, in these countries where emissions grew 19.3%, the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) alone was responsible for a 29.5% increase in emissions, far exceeding population growth (+5.6%) and greenhouse gases from energy production (+3.3%).
Improvements in energy efficiency limited emissions, but the decrease was 19.1%. In these countries, “despite record development in renewable energy, greenhouse gases resulting from energy production have increased, reflecting a resurgence in coal energy”, indicates the OECD.
Among the “partner countries” are large emerging economies whose emissions continue to increase, such as China, India and Saudi Arabia, as well as others where emissions are decreasing slightly, such as Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.
Reducing GHG emissions is essential to combat global warming, and scientists emphasize that every additional tenth of a degree has consequences for biodiversity, the water cycle and natural disasters.
Countries with longer industrialized economies “reduced their emissions by improving energy efficiency and transitioning to cleaner energy sources”, while continuing to grow in economic and population terms, says the Climate Action Monitor, stating that emissions fell by 11.3% between 2015 and 2023.
“This trend highlights the potential and imperative need to reduce emissions in OECD partner countries, including through international cooperation, accelerating the decarbonization of energy systems as these countries develop economically”, highlights the OECD.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned that the world continues on a path of catastrophic warming, which is expected to reach between 2.3 and 2.5 degrees Celsius (°C) this century if countries implement planned climate plans.
10 years ago, in the French capital, countries approved the Paris Agreement, committing to do everything to prevent temperatures from rising beyond 2ºC in relation to pre-industrial times, and preferably not exceeding 1.5ºC.
According to UNEP, reversing the trajectory requires, in addition to a drastic reduction in emissions, the absorption of industrial quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere, either naturally (forests) or through the use of carbon capture technologies, which are still at an early stage.
The OECD report was released shortly before the start of the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, which takes place between the 10th and 21st.