Rankings for Carbon Emissions and Economic Growth Decoupling
63
Uruguay emitted approximately 8 and 10.1 GHG per capita (tCO 2 e/population) while
their emissions’ intensity was 1089 and 545 tCO 2 e/million of GDP measured as
PPP (constant 2011 international $), respectively.
1 Hence, in that scenario, Paraguay
would support an agreement based on its emissions per capita while Uruguay would
prefer commitments based on emissions per unit of GDP. In addition, there are
also conflicts of incentives. Specifically, since GHG mitigation poses local costs but
generates global benefits, individual countries have incentives to pursue low levels
of effort, expecting that others will take action (this is the well-known “free-riding”
problem).
Moreover, there is agreement that higher levels of economic activity favor reductions in extreme poverty, and there is evidence in that respect in the recent world
history (Dollar et al. 2013). However, there is no agreement that a higher world
GDP is compatible with lower levels of emissions. There are in fact three distinct
views referred to the link between growth and nature (Jakob and Edenhofer 2014).
One supports “degrowth” as a way to solve environmental pressure on the planet.
A second one states that green growth is possible: It is feasible to reduce “environmental bads” and increase “economic goods.” A third one favors a-growth. The latter
is represented by “growth agnostics”: what is valuable is not economic growth, but
rather social progress.
The first view is lead by the followers of the Club of Rome that in the 70s recruited
scientists from MIT to study the relationship between growth and the environment.
They published the result of their research in The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al.
1972). In that work they concluded that if the increase in the world population, the
industrialization, pollution, food production and the natural resources exploitation
were maintained without any change, the limits to the planet would be attained in
the lapse of one hundred years.
Almost simultaneously with Meadows et al (1972), Georgescu-Roegen (1971)
used physics to determine that the earth’s resources will eventually be exhausted
at some point. Georgescu-Roegen argued that all natural resources are irreversibly
degraded when put to use in economic activity; consequently, the carrying capacity
of earth to sustain human populations is bound to decrease. He based his ideas on the
physical concept of entropy. The second law of thermodynamics (or law of entropy)
asserts that a natural process runs only in one sense and is not reversible. For example,
heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder bodies, and never the reverse.
Georgescu-Roegen argued not for a second but fourth law by extending the same
1 Total greenhouse gas emissions in kt of CO 2 equivalent are composed of CO 2 totals excluding shortcycle biomass burning (such as agricultural waste burning and Savannah burning) but including other
biomass burning (such as forest fires, post-burn decay, peat fires and decay of drained peatlands), all
anthropogenic CH4 sources, N 2 O sources and F-gases (HFCs, PFCs and SF6). The data is based on
estimated emissions, the countries that are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) use to report to the Convention and follow standardized methodologies
recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Note that from the time
this chapter was written, only one year (2013) was added for this variable in the World Bank
Development Indicators Database. For years from 2014 to 2019 no data for GHG estimators are
reported.
63
Uruguay emitted approximately 8 and 10.1 GHG per capita (tCO 2 e/population) while
their emissions’ intensity was 1089 and 545 tCO 2 e/million of GDP measured as
PPP (constant 2011 international $), respectively.
1 Hence, in that scenario, Paraguay
would support an agreement based on its emissions per capita while Uruguay would
prefer commitments based on emissions per unit of GDP. In addition, there are
also conflicts of incentives. Specifically, since GHG mitigation poses local costs but
generates global benefits, individual countries have incentives to pursue low levels
of effort, expecting that others will take action (this is the well-known “free-riding”
problem).
Moreover, there is agreement that higher levels of economic activity favor reductions in extreme poverty, and there is evidence in that respect in the recent world
history (Dollar et al. 2013). However, there is no agreement that a higher world
GDP is compatible with lower levels of emissions. There are in fact three distinct
views referred to the link between growth and nature (Jakob and Edenhofer 2014).
One supports “degrowth” as a way to solve environmental pressure on the planet.
A second one states that green growth is possible: It is feasible to reduce “environmental bads” and increase “economic goods.” A third one favors a-growth. The latter
is represented by “growth agnostics”: what is valuable is not economic growth, but
rather social progress.
The first view is lead by the followers of the Club of Rome that in the 70s recruited
scientists from MIT to study the relationship between growth and the environment.
They published the result of their research in The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al.
1972). In that work they concluded that if the increase in the world population, the
industrialization, pollution, food production and the natural resources exploitation
were maintained without any change, the limits to the planet would be attained in
the lapse of one hundred years.
Almost simultaneously with Meadows et al (1972), Georgescu-Roegen (1971)
used physics to determine that the earth’s resources will eventually be exhausted
at some point. Georgescu-Roegen argued that all natural resources are irreversibly
degraded when put to use in economic activity; consequently, the carrying capacity
of earth to sustain human populations is bound to decrease. He based his ideas on the
physical concept of entropy. The second law of thermodynamics (or law of entropy)
asserts that a natural process runs only in one sense and is not reversible. For example,
heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder bodies, and never the reverse.
Georgescu-Roegen argued not for a second but fourth law by extending the same
1 Total greenhouse gas emissions in kt of CO 2 equivalent are composed of CO 2 totals excluding shortcycle biomass burning (such as agricultural waste burning and Savannah burning) but including other
biomass burning (such as forest fires, post-burn decay, peat fires and decay of drained peatlands), all
anthropogenic CH4 sources, N 2 O sources and F-gases (HFCs, PFCs and SF6). The data is based on
estimated emissions, the countries that are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) use to report to the Convention and follow standardized methodologies
recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Note that from the time
this chapter was written, only one year (2013) was added for this variable in the World Bank
Development Indicators Database. For years from 2014 to 2019 no data for GHG estimators are
reported.