Only EV sales on track among 42 climate action progress indicators: WRI, State of Climate Action Report

As per the World Resources Institute, State of Climate Action Report 2023, only the share of EVs in passenger car sales is on track to meet its 2030 target, among the 42 indicators of sectoral climate action assessed. 

Besides, EVs, which are seeing exponential growth, other areas look bleak. For example, coal needs to be phased out of electricity generation seven times faster than recent rates, and the annual rate of deforestation – equivalent to 15 football fields per minute in 2022 - needs to be reduced four times faster, the report notes. 

Recent rates of change for 41 of the 42 indicators across power, buildings, industry transport, forests and land, food and agriculture, technological carbon removal, and climate finance are not on track to reach their 1.5°C-aligned targets for 2030.

24 of those indicators are well off track, such that at least a twofold acceleration in recent rates of change will be required to achieve their 2030 targets. Another 6 indicators are heading in the wrong direction entirely. Within this subset of lagging indicators, the most recent year of data represents a concerning worsening relative to recent trends for 3 indicators, with significant setbacks in efforts to eliminate public financing for fossil fuels, dramatically reduce deforestation, and expand carbon pricing systems.

In 2021, for example, public financing for fossil fuels increased sharply, with government subsidies, specifically, nearly doubling from 2020 to reach the highest levels seen in almost a decade (OECD and IISD 2023), the report noted. 

EV push 

Electric car markets are seeing exponential growth, comprising 10% of all new cars sold being in 2022, up from 1.6% in 2018, the report notes.

Because EVs emit much less than fossil-fueled vehicles even when powered by dirty grids, achieving this target could go a long way toward decarbonizing road transport, which currently accounts for 11 percent of global GHG emissions. 

Climate Finance 

Efforts to dramatically increase climate investment remain far too slow, with the need for increased funding particularly acute in developing countries, the report adds. 

Global climate finance flows reached an all-time high in 2021 of $850 billion to $940 billion, representing at least a 27 percent increase from 2020. But growth in climate investment remains well off track from reaching the $5.2 trillion per year needed globally by 2030. 

For developing countries, specifically (excluding China), the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance estimates that they need $2 trillion to $2.8 trillion in investment in mitigation and adaptation per year by 2030, and that $1 trillion of this would need to come from external sources Yet at present, climate investment in developing countries is around a 10th of this, the report notes.