2 How much CO₂ do we emit per unit of production?

By how much CO₂ emissions will increase in the future if the economy continues to grow depends on how much CO₂ is generated during production. We can call this factor the CO₂ intensity of production. It tells us, how much CO₂ is, on average, emitted per unit of produced output. Taking GDP again as the measure of production, we can calculate the CO₂ intensity by dividing the total CO₂ emissions in each year by the value of GDP of the same year.

As you can see in the figure below, the CO₂ intensity has been rising strongly from the initial decades of capitalism to the beginning of the 20th century and has then been declining again for the world as a whole since about the 1970s.

Figure 2.1: CO₂ intensity.⁴

With the app below, you can again take a look at how this picture looks for individual countries.

Explore the data: With this app you can explore how the CO₂ intensity of production has evolved over time for various countries.

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