[Timon3]

> I am unconvinced that people have a stronger affiliation for those than their country.

Why is the affiliation the relevant axis? Why not indirect political power (unions strongest) or direct political power (regions strongest)? You're arbitrarily choosing an arbitrary measurement.

> Further, measuring emissions levels for the country as a whole. On a practical level, getting emission levels for a specific region or a specific union, must less particular individuals, is going to be much harder.

I don't see how it could be more complex for unions since they are made up of countries. If we have measurements for countries, we have measurements for unions.

Similarly, you can't create country-wide measurements without measuring individual regions. At least in Germany we have pretty good coverage for the individual regions, which gives you much higher resolution data. So why not use that?

I don't see how you can arrive at "countries" as the best/most logical axis of measurement. The only use I see is if you want to tell people that other countries have much further to go (but I'm not accusing you of doing so).