Unlike the pandemic-driven drop in 2020, this wasn’t driven by a widespread decrease in energy demand. Demand did increase, but additions of electric vehicles and solar and wind generation covered almost 70 percent of the growth. Electric vehicles can account for only about 20 percent of that consequential decline in oil emissions, meaning the bulk is due to high prices.

One simple way to break down emissions is to connect it to economic output. Given a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), energy use per unit GDP, and carbon emissions per unit energy, you can calculate total carbon emissions. GDP might go up, but if that’s due to less energy-intensive industries or a cleaner energy system, carbon emissions might not rise with it.

Between 2019 and 2025, 59 countries cut their emissions despite economic growth, even as global emissions increased by 0.8 percent per year.…