A Lot of Heat in the City of Lights

COP21 has been over for a while now and I was feeling like engaging with the notion that, just maybe, economic development on its own will sort out the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

This seems to show per capita CO2 emissions declining for the US, the EU, the Russian Federation, Canada, South Africa, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

This seems to be two-fold; those countries that are not wealthy are oil and natural gas exporters save Uzbekistan which is tiny and outlier Ukraine.

As of 2012 Taiwan is a rich country but was not back in 1990, explaining its big increase.

Those countries rich in both years almost without exception see a decrease in per capita emissions - the only outliers are Japan and Australia, with Spain being too close to call.

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