The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Luis Mundaca

Luis Mundaca

Professor

Luis Mundaca

Measuring progress towards a ‘Green Energy Economy’: Who is really winning the race?

Author

  • Luis Mundaca

Summary, in English

This paper provides the first regional econometric decomposition of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in eight regions of the world. Using the best publically-available time series data (1971–2011), the analysis examines the key determinants and relationships of the ‘Green Energy Economy’ (GEE) in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Non-OECD Europe and countries from the Former Soviet Union, Oceania, OECD Europe, and OECD North America. The results show that emissions continued to grow across all regions, at rates ranging from 0.1% y-1 to 7% y-1 for the period under analysis. Despite progress in energy intensity (e.g. Asia) and carbon dioxide intensity of the energy supply (e.g. OECD Europe), GDP per capita (or ‘affluence’) was found to be a key driver of accelerating CO2 emissions in most regions. In certain cases, a sharp but short term decrease in CO2 emissions was identified; however, these reductions did not appear to correlate with income levels or other explanatory variables, but rather to a historical exogenous shock. Findings show that the opportunity offered by the 2008–2009 global financial crisis to move towards a GEE, at least in terms of reduced CO2 emissions, was missed in nearly all regions. From a policy perspective, the analysis strongly suggests that regional policy portfolios aimed at market uptake of green energy technologies are still insufficient and/or ineffective and that great ambition level is needed.

Department/s

  • The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Publication/Series

[Host publication title missing]

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

International Society for Ecological Economics

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • CO2 emissions
  • gross domestic product
  • energy intensity of economy
  • carbon intensity of energy supply
  • econometric analysis
  • decomposition analysis

Conference name

Biannual International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) Conference, 2014

Conference date

2014-09-13 - 2014-09-15

Conference place

Reykjavik, Iceland

Status

Published