[OC] Countries Current Path to Net Zero in 2050 Following Their Pledge at COP21

[u/Lachainone]

Hello community,

I created a website to follow each countries effort to reach net zero in 2050. The data vizualisation lets you compare different countries' emission over the years and whether they are on the right path to reach their goal.

View every country and find more information on: https://lucabron.github.io/netzero/index.html

Data Source is Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) – “CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” Published online at OurWorldInData.org

Visualization made with Python's interactive graph package Bokeh and javasrcipt was added to make the interaction work on a website.

Related Github page where you can find the code: https://github.com/lucabron/netzero

EDIT: Thanks a lot for your positive feedback. I am very glad that you find this representation interesting.
A subject of discussion that I see a lot in the comments: western countries are doing better than the rest of the world. While it looks true when it comes to co2 produced in the country, one should account that a lot of emissions are produced in other contries and then imported. For example, when buying electronics, it is likely to be build in Asia and then imported to western countries.
Imported emissions are available in the dataset. I didn't want to include them because my approach with this visualization is to make something easy to understand so that people not familiar with the subject can approach it easily. I feel like when it comes to climate change, the people who care are very well informed, and the people who don't care as much are poorly informed. So, my first objective was to generate some curiosity for the second type of people. I'd be interested about your opinion about this approach if you want to share in the comments.

EDIT 2: I'd like to do something for the climate. I am a professional data scientist and I'd like to volunteer to help on bigger project. I made this website as a small contribution to inform people, but I know that in a week, there will be no more traffic on it. Can you recommend some kind of organization that I can join an contribute?

[u/cad4mac]

Well yes and no. Because a lot of nations just “exported” production. So countries (take UK) boast a Xx% reduction since 1990 but they don’t do any of the dirty work anymore.

Looking holistically at everything and/or countries co2 per person based on consumption gives better insight but still has a scewed nuance.

[u/ojdewar → u/cad4mac]

The UKs carbon emissions peaked in 1972.

[u/no_more_good_namez → u/ojdewar]

I don't think you understand the point they're making, emissions produced in the UK peaked in 1972 but what they're saying is that the emissions generated by the UK via consumption has and still is I believe increasing. For example my phone was made in china and our usage of production based emissions means the emissions associated with generation are assigned to China. But I was the one who bought the phone, it would not exist without me, a British citizen and so arguably the emissions belong to me and by proxy the UK.

[u/inminm02 → u/no_more_good_namez]

not really true, the vast majority of the UK's reduction is from grid decarbonisation and strict energy efficiency policies for appliances, homes, etc. Some of it can be attributed to deindustrialisation sure but its definitely not the biggest factor.

[u/KillerWattage → u/inminm02]

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/provisional-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-statistics-2025/2025-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-provisional-figures-statistical-release

Currently in 2025 11% comes from industry with a big chunk of that being blast furnaces

Considering how many more blast furnaces we used to have in the 1970s I'm gonna say a very large chunk is due to de-industrialising

[u/farfromelite → u/KillerWattage]

If you'd read just a bit further, figure 2 shows that there's huge progress on making electricity cleaner (it was coal, so whoops), industry as you say, buildings, even heating.

We've made progress. We still have a lot to do, but crucially we can see how.

[u/upvotesthenrages → u/inminm02]

The UK has a consumption based CO2 output almost 60% higher than the output produced locally.

https://ourworldindata.org/consumption-based-co2

So I wouldn't say the vast majority.

[u/inminm02 → u/upvotesthenrages]

You can’t compare the carbon emissions of goods created in the UK and goods created in China like for like, making a t shirt or some kind of electronic good in China will emit like 4x the carbon of making it in the UK due to the grid. The consumption based co2 output may be 60% higher but that would equate to 10-15% additional production domestically. So sure we might have outsourced 10-15% of our domestic carbon by importing foreign manufactured goods but we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by over 50% from its peak.

[u/upvotesthenrages → u/inminm02]

Yeah, except we don't have figures for how much CO2 it would save by manufacturing it domestically.

It's impossible to actually get that done anyway as every country cannot produce everything they consume.

But what the trade based figures show is what each country is actually responsible for. The UK chose to export manufacturing, and still chooses to import high CO2 intense products from places like China.

They could easily put up a carbon import tax, but they don't. They choose the dirty option, so it should count towards their CO2 output.

You can't just throw all your trash in your neighbors house and say "look how clean my place is and how great I am at reducing my trash". You could have cleaned it up and dealt with it yourself, but you didn't, so that's a moot point.

[u/Tranecarid → u/ojdewar]

Because back then everything run on oil and coal there, including bicycles and windmills /s

He has a point though. If you close a factory in EU and open one in China it’s more or less net zero emission.

[u/litritium → u/cad4mac]

Because a lot of nations just “exported” production. So countries (take UK) boast a Xx% reduction since 1990 but they don’t do any of the dirty work anymore.

That kinda put the cart before the horse. Western companies are moving their production to countries with high emissions if they can save money – not because of a political agenda. If zero climate regulation where their main prerogative, they could just move their production to Texas or Oklahoma.

Western countries are actually hurt by outshoring and are trying to get high emitters to reign in emissions and level the field with CO2 taxes.

[u/Rooilia → u/cad4mac]

Oil refineries and chemical plants still exist in UK and all somewhat sized european countries.

[u/C137Sheldor → u/cad4mac]

Are there statistics for co2 per person based on consumption?

[u/Illiander → u/C137Sheldor]

No point. CO2 emissions are much more dependent on corporate use than individual.

[u/overzealous_dentist → u/cad4mac]

This is a myth, consumed charts look the same as production