Experts have questioned the green successes of Europe and the United States
Despite loud statements about decarbonization, developed countries have significantly reduced their own industrial emissions due to the transfer of "dirty" industries to Asia. This is the conclusion reached by the Canadian Visual Capitalist platform after analyzing the dynamics of CO₂ emissions in the 20 largest pollutant countries in 2014-2024.
The United Kingdom (-29%), Germany (-28%) and the United States (-11%) were among the countries that demonstrated the largest reduction in industrial emissions. This was partly the result of the abandonment of coal use in the country. At the same time, a significant portion of energy-intensive production has been shifted to developing countries.
It is the Asian states that have become new centers of global production over the past decade. Emissions in Vietnam increased by 106% during this time, in Indonesia — by 63%, and in India — by almost 49%. These countries have been actively increasing their industrial capacities to produce goods that will continue to be consumed by Western markets.
China also continued to increase emissions by 23.2% over the past ten years. However, due to the scale of its industry, this means an additional 2.3 billion tons of CO₂. For comparison, this increase exceeds the annual emissions of most countries in the world.
Experts point out that reducing emissions in developed countries does not always mean a real global reduction in pollution. According to Felix Hawkings, ESG strategy consultant, rich states often improve their own environmental statistics by shifting production to other regions, rather than by actually reducing global industrial emissions.
In his opinion, the problem of climate change cannot be solved only because of the regional approach to accounting for emissions, since the global economy remains closely interconnected.