United Nations Climate Change:
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century.
The methodology is simple. Given that all countries have signed the Paris Agreement*, global emissions should reach net-zero by the middle of the 21st century. Therefore, taking the change of CO2 emissions from 2015 to the last available data (currently 2020) and linearly extrapolating until 2050, we can have an idea if each country is on the right path to reach net-zero.
Some countries signed the agreement, but didn't pledge for net-zero at 2050, for example China (2060) and India (2070). But to for the goal of 1.5 degree celsius to be reached, global net-zero needs to be reached in 2050 according to the ICPP. Therefore, to facilitate the comprehension and the comparison of the data vizualisation, the carbon neutral target is 2050 for all countries.
Argument: The curve should decrease faster and faster since the countries will need time to put their programmes into practice and have them deliver effects.
Counter-argument: 2015 is not the starting point of environmental awareness.
In fact, it happened during the COP21 which was the 21st edition of the United Nations Climate Change conference.
States were aware of the problem long before. There is no excuse for not implementing their program earlier.
Also, you may argue that the first gains will be easier to realise because there is a lot of low hanging fruits to catch and reducing the last bit of emissions will be harder.
I am thinking to add more complexe models in the future (I am aware that there is some awesome predictive models out there), but I am worried that the complexity will decrease the user-experience.
The two concepts are similar but carbon neutrality refers only to CO2 emissions while net zero includes all the greenhouse gases.
I would rather provide net zero emissions since it makes for a more complete picture, but unfortunatly I haven't found country data for the period after 2018.
Carbon sinks are included in the carbon data.
* Iran, Lybia and Yemen have signed but did not ratify it.
Data Source: Our World In Data / Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” Published online at OurWorldInData.org.