Carbon Dioxide Emissions: 17 Years ans still Talking
The 15th annual Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen last year saw delegations from 192 countries come together in an attempt to establish a global climate agreement for 2012 before the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol (2008-2012). This paper will examine how these figures have changed since Kyoto base year 1990, before looking at certain countries" proposals for the future of their carbon dioxide emissions.
To understand the various trends that have taken place, it is important to view not only the countries" emissions changes, but also the developments in regards to the economy and energy use. Therefore, we present below changes in CO2 emissions, changes in the gross domestic product of a country, its CO2 emissions per capita, its energy intensity and its carbon intensity of energy use as well as population change. Energy intensity is the ratio of energy use to the monetary value of GDP. Carbon intensity of energy use is the ratio of CO2 emissions to energy use. Analyzing these characteristics of the eight chosen countries in the table below allows us to view these countries in several dimensions and relative to each other while keeping the focus on overall CO2 emissions and climate change.
This paper is published in French only : 17 ans d'évolution des émissions de gaz carbonique des grands pays émetteurs