Carbon dioxide emissions and standard of living

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Carbon dioxide emissions and standard of living

• by Ayman Ghanam

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Why I chose this topic?

• My mind map pointed me towards world issues
• Interested in Kyoto protocol
• I like the controversy of the subject
• Its a global issue and everyone should worry

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Thesis

• Do countries that produce low CO2 emissions have
  a low standard of living?
• Hypothesis I believe that countries that produce
  a lower amount of CO2 will have better standards
  of living then the ones that produce a high
  amount.

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The Kyoto Protocol

• is an agreement made in Kyoto Japan that
  postulates that CO2 emissions are very high and
  need to be curbed.
• The agreement introduces rules to encourage
  countries take whatever measures are needed to
  cut down on their CO2 emissions
• Some countries do not want to ratify it because
  of the negative consequences on their economies.
• So far, 86 countries have ratified the Kyoto
  Protocol - roughly half the number that attended
  the Kyoto conference. The United States has said
  it will not ratify Kyoto.

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• The protocol has become legally binding in
  February 2005 when it was ratified by 55
  countries covering at least 55 of the emissions
  addressed by the protocol. The 55-country
  benchmark had been passed some time before and
  the ratification of Russia made the protocol come
  in action by passing the 55 of the emissions
  threshhold.
• Under Kyoto, Canada has agreed to reduce
  greenhouse gas emissions to 6 below 1990 levels
  by 2012 (Europe 8, World 5). This would
  represent a 26 reduction from projected 2012
  levels. Two years ago, Canada had surpassed its
  1990 levels by close to 20.

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What I wanted to do

• Look at at the different factors of standard of
  living (variables)
• Compare them to CO2 emissions
• See if CO2 emissions are correlated (or not) with
  the standard of living

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Which countries I picked

• 10 developed countries
• Canada
• U.S
• U.K
• France
• Hungary
• Australia
• Japan
• Luxembourg
• New Zealand
• Germany

• 10 Developing nations
  
• Brazil
• China
• India
• Mexico
• Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait
• Iran
• Argentina
• Venezuela
• Syria

• And 10 Less Developed Countries
• Sudan
• Togo
• Uganda
• Cambodia
• Yemen
• Nepal
• Bangladesh
• Haiti
• Senegal
• Liberia

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The variables

• CO2 emissions per capita
• Literacy rates
• GDP per capita
• Life Expectancy
• Percentage of people living below poverty line

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Graphs
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Graphs

• As Co2 emissions increase so does the GDP per
  capita. But, as seen, the correlation coefficient
  is weak and cannot support any conclusions.

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Since data is available for past CO2 emission
values and GDP per capita values, I decide to
graph them hoping that I will get stronger
conclusions.
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Analysis

• The United States CO2 emissions were on the rise
  for the past years and their GDP kept up with it
  very well, stating that as more CO2 produced GDP
  increases. This completely goes against my
  hypothesis because it is stating that as CO2
  emissions go up so does the standard of living.

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Canadas Graph
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Analysis

• Weakness in the correlation coefficient.
• However there is somewhat of a trend that
  followed the U.Ss which again disproves my
  thesis.

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Graph
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Analysis

• The U.Ks graph was very interesting to see, it
  basically states that as GDP in the past went up
  the CO2 emissions per capita went down. This
  completely supports my thesis because it shows
  that a high standard of living can be achieved
  while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions.

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Graph
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Analysis

• Germanys graph also does the same as all of the
  other European nations, even though the
  correlation coefficient is somewhat weaker than
  the other graphs the trend is similar and
  therefore supports my thesis.

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Graph
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Graph
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Analysis

• There seems to be almost no strong relationship
  between poverty rates and how much CO2 is
  produced. The correlation coefficient seems to be
  very week and offers no strong conclusions.
  If data from previous years were offered there
  might have been a stronger correlation that could
  help me draw some sort of conclusion.

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Graph(1999)
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Analysis

• Again there is no strong correlation for this
  data and therefore I cant make any conclusions.
• But since I was able to find data from past years
  I will use some countries to try to see trends
  over time.

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Canadas graph
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Analysis

• Canadas graph shows a good relationship that can
  give me somewhat of a conclusion that as CO2
  emissions emitted per capita rises each year so
  does Canadas literacy rate. This goes against my
  Hypothesis, which states that if CO2 drops better
  aspects of standard of living will improve.

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United States
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Analysis

• Along with Canada, the U.S continues to bring up
  its per capita CO2 emissions but still has a
  growing literacy rate as seen in the past years

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United Kingdom
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Germany
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Analysis

• For Canada and the U.S as CO2 emissions increase
  and so does the literacy rate
• For majority of European countries as literacy
  rate rise CO2 emissions fall

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Concluding thoughts

• Through the research that Ive done, I have seen
  both cases where hypothesis was proved and
  disproved. When looking at GDP and its trends in
  the past years and comparing it to CO2 emissions,
  I found that for The United States in and Canada
  the more pollution that was produced on a per
  capita basis the higher the GDP was. This
  completely disproved my hypothesis. But
  interestingly enough when I drew graphs for
  European nations I found that they are lowering
  their CO2 per capita emissions and still bringing
  up their GDP and literacy rates. The graphs for
  the other indicators of standard of standard of
  living such as life expectancy and poverty rates
  didnt tell me much as I couldnt find data for
  them for the past years like GDP and literacy
  rates.

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• So have I answered my question? Do countries that
  produce low CO2 emissions have a low standard of
  living? And have I proved that countries that
  produce less CO2 will have better standards of
  living than the ones that do pollute a lot? Well
  not exactly but I found that some countries that
  produce low amount of CO2 per capita do have as
  good of a standard of living as countries like
  the US and Canada. But what I can tell you for
  sure is that polluting less means a cleaner
  environment and not any major harm done to a
  countrys standard of living, which is the main
  reason why Ive done this project.

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• Final notes added by EFN (not by the author of
  this study)
• 1 - The decrease of CO2 emissions in the UK and
  in Germany results from the replacement of coal
  plants by gas plants, and has nothing to do with
  the standard of living.
• 2 - The correlation between standard of living
  and CO2 emissions exists but only for the poorer
  countries and only UNDER 3 tons of CO2 per
  inhabitant/year. But amongst the rich countries
  (above a minimal GDP and above 3 tons CO2 per
  year), CO2 emissions do not result from GDP but
  from the energy production methods (nuclear
  electricity in France, hydro in Sweden).