Asian Review of Environmental and Earth Sciences

The global agreement on climate change – COP21 – will have immediate consequences upon the large emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Asia. From 2018 there can be no increases of GHG:s and preferable some decreases. The unique global agreement speaks little about the economic consequences, but emissions and GDP are strongly linked through energy consumption. This article shows the situation for major economies in Asia with regard to the connection between GDP and GHG:s. It remains to be seen how the implementation of this global treaty will play out. Whether it has the force of public international law remains to be tested as well as whether all countries will ratify the treaty and abide by it. Several Asian countries have only 2 years to make major changes.