7. Intensity
Every large economy now emits less CO₂ per dollar than in 2005. China and India still emit more tonnes, because their economies grew faster than their intensity fell.
Two things get conflated here and the charts separate them: whether an economy got cleaner (CO₂ per dollar of real GDP), and whether its tonnage went up or down. The first is close to universal. The second depends on how fast the economy grew.
China cut the carbon intensity of its economy by 49% between 2005 and 2024 and India by 15% in the same years, while renewables went from 5.2% to 17.5% of China's energy mix and from 6.4% to 9.1% of India's.
The US, Germany and the UK cut intensity by about as much or more and grew more slowly, so their tonnage fell.
Japan got there the other way round: it cut intensity by only 32% and its tonnage fell anyway, because its economy barely grew.
So what. This is the intensity-target versus absolute-target choice, and the charts show two countries hitting one while missing the other. An intensity target is fully compatible with rising emissions, which is why most corporate target-setting frameworks require an absolute one, and why an organisation can report a KPI improving every year while its actual footprint grows.
Who acts: whoever sets and reports the target. Cost of getting it wrong: hitting the KPI and missing the outcome, in public, for a decade.