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This is the 2023 edition of the UNEP Emissions Gap Report series, which tracks our progress in limiting global warming well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement.

This report was developed under the Clean and Affordable Energy for Southeast Asia (CASE) project, analysing the impacts and long-term policy implications of the global energy crisis on Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The world is going through a major energy crisis as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the next few years are critical for climate action—a last chance to keep the 1.5°C temperature limit within reach. So far, governments have largely failed to seize their chance to rearrange their energy supplies away from fossil fuels, the latest Climate Action Tracker briefing finds. Instead, we are witnessing a global “gold rush” for new fossil gas production, pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. This risks locking us into another high-carbon decade and keeping the...

This report presents a comprehensive mapping of mitigation options available in the subsector, mitigation potential, abatement costs, key barriers of uptake, financing options, and applicability to the Georgian context.

This report assesses Georgia’s sectoral mitigation policy coverage by identifying and exploring gaps in each sector and outlines the potential for further sectoral action, based on examples from international contexts.

This report focuses on how countries that are dealing with climate change planning can ensure that these plans are integrated into their overall development planning to meet the needs of their populations.

In this Climate Policy publication, we show that the number and coverage of climate change mitigation policies have increased in the past twenty years, but important policy adoption gaps remain. Despite this increase, slow progress towards reducing global emissions and meeting the collective Paris climate goals calls for more comprehensive climate change mitigation policies. Filling policy adoption gaps presents a concrete strategy to improve sectoral, national and global climate policy. Main findings: The number and coverage of climate change mitigation policies have increased in the past...

In this report, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) explores several sets of scenarios for the evolution of the passenger vehicle stock in China, in order to inform on emission reduction and electricity demand implications. Summary: China is currently the global leader in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales annually, a position it has held since 2015 when it surpassed the US. The one positive policy priority in China’s COVID-19 recovery focused on transitioning the transport sector towards development of public transport systems and electrified transport. New energy vehicles (NEVs), which...

Georgia is at an important crossroad with regards to the short-, medium- and long-term future of infrastructure and investment in the transport sector. Transport is a key sector for Georgia’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan (CSAP), which was prepared for parliamentary consideration in 2020 alongside Georgia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. These documents were partially informed by the analysis compiled in this report, which supported the transport sector to identify actions for reducing emissions. This report explores several emission pathway...

The EU cement sector has made progress to reduce emissions in the past three decades, yet there is a long way ahead for the carbon-intensive industry to decarbonise. In this study, potential decarbonisation pathways are developed and analysed based on different highly innovative technology routes. Based on the results, challenges and opportunities related to specific technologies are identified, informing policy recommendations for the near-, mid- and long term. Main findings: The characteristics of the traditional cement production process, with its major part of emissions originating from...

This is the eleventh edition of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report. It assesses the gap between estimated future global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if countries implement their climate mitigation pledges and the global emission levels from least-cost pathways that are aligned with achieving the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. This difference between “where we are likely to be and where we need to be” has become known as the ‘emissions gap’. The report also examines two areas that are highly relevant for bridging the gap and which have become even...

This article quantifies the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions resulting from the full implementation of major international cooperative initiatives’ (ICIs) goals. We develop criteria to select the most significant ICIs to aggregate, and propose novel methodologies to quantify emission reduction impacts and account for overlaps between them. The analysis was conducted for 17 initiatives, across eight sectors and ten major emitting economies accounting for roughly two-thirds of global GHG emissions in 2019. ICIs are international activities outside the UNFCCC driven by cities...

This article quantifies the net aggregate impact in 2030 of commitments by individual non-state and subnational actors (e.g. regions, cities and businesses, collectively referred to as ‘NSAs’) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The analysis was conducted for NSAs operating within ten major emitting economies that together accounted for roughly two-thirds of global GHG emissions in 2016. Our assessment includes 79 regions (e.g. subnational states and provinces), approximately 6,000 cities, and nearly 1,600 companies with a net emissions coverage of 8.1 GtCO2e/year, or a quarter of the...

This report is the second global analysis of local and regional government and corporate climate contributions, updating “Global Climate Action from Cities, Regions, and Companies” launched at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit. The 2018 report established the strong potential of subnational and non-state actors to help avoid climate change. This year, we aim to inform the September 2019 UN Climate Action Summit on how mitigation by cities, regions and companies could help national governments boost their ambition beyond their current targets, to come in line with the Paris Agreement’s...

Since the Paris Climate Agreement solidified an “all hands on deck” approach to climate change, cities, regions and businesses have become key contributors to mitigation, adaptation and finance efforts. These actors are pledging a range of actions, from directly reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions footprints, to building capacity for climate adaptation and resilience to providing private finance. This report is the most comprehensive assessment of these non-state actor commitments to reduce greenhouse gases to date. The report focuses on 9 high-emitting countries – Brazil, China, India...