Rankings for Carbon Emissions and Economic Growth Decoupling
67
China (Jiangsu) from 1995 to 2009. A similar analysis is done by Wang and Yang
(2015) for carbon emissions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebi economic band. Wang et al.
(2013) using decoupling indicators for materials use, energy use and SO 2 in China,
Russia, Japan and the USA during the 2000–2007 period, conclude that decoupling
was stronger in the two OECD nations than in the two BRIC countries because of
their different development stages. There are more analysis of this type for different
sectors, cities, regions, nations and groups of countries.
In a less academic vein, several think tanks and international agencies evaluate
if there is decoupling at the world and at the country level. They assess decoupling
without using indicators but by simply looking at the rate of growth of carbon emissions and the rate of growth of GDP. Under this stream, the International Energy
Agency, for example, concludes that carbon dioxide global emissions generated by
the energy sector have decoupled from the world GDP since those emissions stayed
basically stable in the last three years while GDP increased at a 3% rate approximately (IEA 2016). In addition, think tanks as World Resources Institute (WRI
2016) and Carbon Brief (2016) have compared CO 2 emissions and GDP of several
countries and conclude that there was green growth (the equivalent of strong decoupling: GDP increases while carbon emissions decrease) for several of them between
2000 and 2013. More precisely, WRI uses CO 2 territorial emissions from the BP
Statistical Review of World Energy and GDP (dollars of 2009) from the World
Development Indicators for 67 countries. They find that 31% (= 21/67) of the countries in their dataset decreased their emissions between 2000 and 2013 and expanded
economically during those years.
For the same period, Carbon Brief (2016) broadened the sample by using production generated CO 2 data from Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)
and GDP in each countries’ local currency for 181 nations and consumption CO 2
emissions for the same source, which was available for 118 countries.
3 They do so
because since it is often argued that developed countries decrease territorial emissions and increase consumption ones, it may happen that decoupling is different when
considering consumption and not only production emissions. Peters et al. (2011), for
example, show some evidence that rich countries are generally carbon importers (the
carbon embodied in the goods they consume is larger than the one of the goods they
produce) and the other way around for developing countries. Their conclusions are
summarized in Fig. 1. Argentina, for example, is one of the nations that are carbon
exporters.
Making that distinction between production and consumption emissions, Carbon
Brief (2016) finds that 19% (=35/181) of nations increase GDP while they decrease
territorial emissions, and 18% (=21/118) attain green growth when considering
consumption emissions. Hence, even if developed countries are carbon importers
3 Less countries keep track of carbon emissions from consumption in part due to the fact that
inventories that have to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change are production-based.
67
China (Jiangsu) from 1995 to 2009. A similar analysis is done by Wang and Yang
(2015) for carbon emissions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebi economic band. Wang et al.
(2013) using decoupling indicators for materials use, energy use and SO 2 in China,
Russia, Japan and the USA during the 2000–2007 period, conclude that decoupling
was stronger in the two OECD nations than in the two BRIC countries because of
their different development stages. There are more analysis of this type for different
sectors, cities, regions, nations and groups of countries.
In a less academic vein, several think tanks and international agencies evaluate
if there is decoupling at the world and at the country level. They assess decoupling
without using indicators but by simply looking at the rate of growth of carbon emissions and the rate of growth of GDP. Under this stream, the International Energy
Agency, for example, concludes that carbon dioxide global emissions generated by
the energy sector have decoupled from the world GDP since those emissions stayed
basically stable in the last three years while GDP increased at a 3% rate approximately (IEA 2016). In addition, think tanks as World Resources Institute (WRI
2016) and Carbon Brief (2016) have compared CO 2 emissions and GDP of several
countries and conclude that there was green growth (the equivalent of strong decoupling: GDP increases while carbon emissions decrease) for several of them between
2000 and 2013. More precisely, WRI uses CO 2 territorial emissions from the BP
Statistical Review of World Energy and GDP (dollars of 2009) from the World
Development Indicators for 67 countries. They find that 31% (= 21/67) of the countries in their dataset decreased their emissions between 2000 and 2013 and expanded
economically during those years.
For the same period, Carbon Brief (2016) broadened the sample by using production generated CO 2 data from Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)
and GDP in each countries’ local currency for 181 nations and consumption CO 2
emissions for the same source, which was available for 118 countries.
3 They do so
because since it is often argued that developed countries decrease territorial emissions and increase consumption ones, it may happen that decoupling is different when
considering consumption and not only production emissions. Peters et al. (2011), for
example, show some evidence that rich countries are generally carbon importers (the
carbon embodied in the goods they consume is larger than the one of the goods they
produce) and the other way around for developing countries. Their conclusions are
summarized in Fig. 1. Argentina, for example, is one of the nations that are carbon
exporters.
Making that distinction between production and consumption emissions, Carbon
Brief (2016) finds that 19% (=35/181) of nations increase GDP while they decrease
territorial emissions, and 18% (=21/118) attain green growth when considering
consumption emissions. Hence, even if developed countries are carbon importers
3 Less countries keep track of carbon emissions from consumption in part due to the fact that
inventories that have to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change are production-based.