In honor of today's release of the draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2005--you are invited to comment on the report here--I spent some time today browsing (or was it perusing) the WRI Earthtrends Database. I'm not sure what the two have to do with each other, but somehow one lead to the other, but for the life of me I can't remember why. Anyway, here's a question:
Q: Which region do you think is the most efficient producer of carbon dioxide emissions? Here I define efficiency as C02 emissions per U.S. equivalent dollar of GDP.
A: Below the jump.
A: South America.
You probably thought I was going to say North America, didn't you? Come on, admit it...you think I only report results favorable to the U.S.
Nope, North America is third most efficient behind South America and Europe. Oceania is fourth.
Least efficient? The Middle East/Northern Africa, followed closely by Subsaharan Africa.
Who has had the most rapid improvement in CO2 per $ over the last 30 years? North America followed by Europe and Oceania.
Who has become less efficient producers of CO2 over time? The Middle East, North Africa and Subsaharan Africa.
It looks like developed countries get the most $ per ton of CO2 and are improving most rapidly.
Unfortunately those regions are the same ones that have the highest GDP. GDP growth swamps the CO2 efficiency gains and CO2 increases.
So the problem isn't too much CO2, it's too much GDP...right?
