Global Synthesis Report on climate action by sector

This first Report provides a “point zero”, the basis of understanding needed to identify the most significant developments year after year. Synthetic analyses pointing out the dynamics at work and the remarkable initiatives taken throughout the world by non-state actors are covered in this edition, across the major emission sectors of energy, transport, industry and land use.

In this 2nd edition, the trends and weak signals observed in 6 GHG emitting sectors are analysed : energy, transport, industry and land use and, new in this edition, the building and waste emission sectors. The report analyses the breaks and continuities in the actions taken by non-state actors. Since 2018, emissions have continued to increase : the Climate Chance Observatory notes that this trend seems difficult to reverse in all sectors.

For this 3rd edition, the Climate Chance Observatory dedicates its analysis to the impacts of Covid-19 on the climate strategies of local governments, businesses, companies and civil society around the world, with regard to the weak trends and signals observed in 2019 for each GHG emitting sector. New this year : two focuses on the steel and textile industries.

Find here the replays of the Climate Chance Talks organised for the launch of the 2020 Sector-based report 2020.

Back to the Future.
2021: A Major Acceleration in Climate Action… and in Emissions.

The recovery from the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic is revealing two general trends, seemingly contradictory. On the one hand, there is an acceleration of climate action: the installation of renewable energies, the adoption of electric mobility, commitments to carbon neutrality, and the desire to develop breakthrough technologies for the transition have all gained significant momentum this year. However, on the other hand, it is clear that despite these encouraging trends, emissions are on the rise again, and the many commitments made by governments and companies still do not put the world on a trajectory compatible with the Paris Agreement. The 2021 Sector-based Report, the only document that each year summarises all major climate action, attempts to explain the co-existence of these two divergent trends, and to account for the complexity of this pivotal period.

The Global Synthesis Report on Climate by Sector is a comprehensive report that tells the complete story behind the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions in major emission sectors worldwide, namely energy, transport, buildings, industries, waste, and land use. This is the flagship publication of the Climate Chance Observatory, which is presented every year during COP, and is most likely the only publication to offer such a comprehensive overview of climate action by all non-state actors on a global scale.

One year before the Global Stocktake, and as the year 2022 marks a return of emissions, more or less rapidly depending on the sector, closer to their 2019 level, it is essential to show the evolution of mobilization and to understand how climate action was organized over the year.

The Global Synthesis Report on Climate Action, the flagship publication of the Climate Chance Observatory, provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made in climate action by non-state actors. It tells the story behind the figures for changes in greenhouse gas emissions and activity in the main emission sectors (energy, transport, buildings, industry, waste, land use), analysing the main levers for action and signals of transition.

This sixth edition, to coincide with the Global Stocktake of collective progress under the Paris Agreement, examines the strategies of businesses, local governments and civil society to drive climate action since 2015.