Decoupling Co2 Emissions and Economic Growth a Multiscale Analysis of Sustainable Development Indicator 9.4.1 -

In 2016 the UN defined 232 unique indicators to evaluate progress in pursuit of its Sustainable Development Goals. Indicator 9.4.1, CO 2, emissions per unit of value added (CO 2 /GDP), can provide a measure of the decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions and economic growth as represented by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although initially envisioned as a national-level indicator, subnational data can provide insight and utility relevant to local objectives and social equity. We calculate Indicator 9.4.1 at the state and county level for the U.S., and show the great heterogeneity that exists at finer scale. Although CO 2 emissions have been decreasing even as GDP increases in the U.S. as a whole, the same is true in only four-fifths of its states around one-third of its counties. There are many counties in which CO 2 is increasing as GDP declines, or in other combinations of decoupling CO 2 emissions from economic growth. Different relationships of CO 2 and GDP exist within states, in adjacent counties, and across the range of rural and urban counties. Our analysis makes it clear that different counties in the U.S. are being disproportionately impacted by initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions