Carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental indicators: contribution to the study of the European situation between 1990 and 2005.

Abstract

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted on 11 December 1997, was elaborated as a means to control the risk of global warming from greenhouse gases, while improving the human condition. This paper is an attempt to answer the following main questions: Does the Protocol signature have any immediate impact on countries behaviour? Is the speed of changes similar to all European countries? Are there any allometric scaling relations between the measure of country’s dynamic (CO2 emissions or other environmental parameter) and the country’s size (population or Gross Domestic Product)? In case of differences among European countries, are these scaling relations relevant to explain the differences? This paper examines the differences between 2 time intervals (i.e., 1990–1997 and 1998–2005), regarding CO2 and other environmental indicators in 15 European countries.