68
M. Conte Grand
Fig. 1 Consumption and territorial CO 2 emissions in developed and developing countries Source
Own elaboration based on data in Peters et al. (2011). Note Developed countries are those that
belong to Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol
(consume more carbon than the one included in what they produce) and developing countries are generally carbon exporters, there is no much difference in the
decoupling behavior considering one source of emission or the other.
The question is if green growth is happening and where, but also if a ranking of
such decoupling results can be established. The literature on growth and environment
centers on the likelihood of a desirable link between economy and the environment;
the studies on decoupling indicators stress the types of decoupling they encounter,
while the non-academic assessments on decoupling mainly signal those countries
that are capable to increase their GDP while decreasing their carbon emissions but
do not use indicators. The main innovation of this chapter is to show two decoupling
rankings for countries in the world using a decoupling indicator. Instead of discussing
which country fits within each type of decoupling pattern, it shows two rankings.
Both balance the economy and the environment, but when there is conflict among
those two goals, one of them (Ordering I) gives priority to economic growth while the
other (Ordering II) prioritizes the environment. The data used for each country come
from the World Bank Indicators database, for the 1990–2012 period: more precisely,
GDP PPP (constant 2011 international $) and greenhouse gas emissions (kt of CO 2
equivalent). The year 1990 was chosen as the base because it was only in 1992 that
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed, and 2012
is the last year for which total greenhouse gases information is almost complete for
most countries in the world (if a most recent date is selected, the number of nations
that can be included in the analysis decreases significantly).
M. Conte Grand
Fig. 1 Consumption and territorial CO 2 emissions in developed and developing countries Source
Own elaboration based on data in Peters et al. (2011). Note Developed countries are those that
belong to Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol
(consume more carbon than the one included in what they produce) and developing countries are generally carbon exporters, there is no much difference in the
decoupling behavior considering one source of emission or the other.
The question is if green growth is happening and where, but also if a ranking of
such decoupling results can be established. The literature on growth and environment
centers on the likelihood of a desirable link between economy and the environment;
the studies on decoupling indicators stress the types of decoupling they encounter,
while the non-academic assessments on decoupling mainly signal those countries
that are capable to increase their GDP while decreasing their carbon emissions but
do not use indicators. The main innovation of this chapter is to show two decoupling
rankings for countries in the world using a decoupling indicator. Instead of discussing
which country fits within each type of decoupling pattern, it shows two rankings.
Both balance the economy and the environment, but when there is conflict among
those two goals, one of them (Ordering I) gives priority to economic growth while the
other (Ordering II) prioritizes the environment. The data used for each country come
from the World Bank Indicators database, for the 1990–2012 period: more precisely,
GDP PPP (constant 2011 international $) and greenhouse gas emissions (kt of CO 2
equivalent). The year 1990 was chosen as the base because it was only in 1992 that
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed, and 2012
is the last year for which total greenhouse gases information is almost complete for
most countries in the world (if a most recent date is selected, the number of nations
that can be included in the analysis decreases significantly).