For anyone wondering who the 5% are:
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UK
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Switzerland
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USA (though this will probably be reversed or ignored under Trump)
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Andorra
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United Arab Emirates (wait, really?)
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Ecuador
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Brazil
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Uruguay
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St Lucia
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New Zealand
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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United Arab Emirates (wait, really?)
They had COP28 in Dubai.
Lol I'd be surprised if my country (Switzerland) follows through. We keep voting down any climate proposals.
And of those 5% who will actually follow through? There's a 0% chance that these countries ever willingly use less energy, as that would be a detrimental blow to their economy. And yeah "solar panels exist" but that only accounts for electricity, and the world still produces over 80% of energy from high carbon sources. Plus we basically require fossil fuels to build the materials needed for "low carbon renewables" like solar panels and wind turbines.
I can't speak for everywhere, but the UK has recently banned the approval of any more North Sea oil drilling, approved several zero carbon energy projects, and is changing planning permission so that people won't be able to block onshore wind and energy infrastructure projects. They're also doing an ICE car ban 5 years earlier than the EU (2030).
Then there's a bunch of new standards for new homes built (e.g. gas boilers not allowed anymore), grants for improving home energy efficiency, and a few other policies like that.
The UK has done a pretty great job so far of decarbonising. Despite having more technology and a population 17% higher, the UK uses less energy now than in 2002. So the UK has been willingly using less energy for years now already. Additionally, the grid has went from being mostly coal and gas to 72% emission-free, with coal being completely eradicated.
There will still be difficulty, though. Most homes in the UK use gas central heating, and since the UK has the oldest housing stock on planet earth by a considerable margin, most houses aren't suited for air or ground source heat pumps. I truly don't know what the answer is for that in regards to net zero.
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When a school subject is so boring and the teacher is so disinterested that nobody even comes.
I mean, if the top 5 or 10 countries fail to do so, does it really matter if Tuvalu files or not? 95% of countries likely don't make significant contributions in the first place, certainly not enough to off-set US/China/Russia/Brazil.
The top 5 China, USA, India, EU and Russia emit a combined 64% of global emissions. The top 10 emitters adding Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia(,Germany but it is part of the EU) and South Korea are at 74%. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-share-of-co2-emissions?tab=table
Of the lot only the USA has actually put in a contribution and well it then left the Paris Climate Agreement. So nobody really did.
Jeez, really? I thought they all wanted to save the world! How could this have happened? /S
Seriously, you'd think that "saving the human race" might be worth doing the right thing, but nope, it isn't.
Long live psychopathic world leaders! They better because us plebs will be dead soon
Unfortunate.
At the same time the country I care about is the one I'm living in because the US is a leading contributor to the problem.