Achieving decent living standards in emerging economies challenges national mitigation goals for CO₂ emissions

Emerging economies, low- and middle-income countries experiencing rapid population and GDP growth, face the challenge of improving their living standards while stabilizing CO₂ emissions to meet net-zero goals. In this study, we quantify the CO₂ emissions required for achieving decent living standards (DLS) in emerging economies. The results show that, compared to other regions, achieving DLS in emerging Asian and African economies will result in more additional CO₂ emissions, particularly in the DLS indicators of Mobility and Electricity. Achievement of DLS in emerging economies will result in 8.6 Gt of additional CO₂ emissions, which should not jeopardize global climate targets. However, a concerning trend arises as more than half of the emerging economies (62 out of 121) will face substantial challenges in aligning their expected emission growth for achieving DLS with their national emission mitigation targets.