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

Authors: Antonio F. Miguel

Addresses: Department of Physics and Geophysics Centre of Evora, University of Evora, Rua Romao Ramalho 59, 7000-671 Evora, Portugal

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 emission 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.

Keywords: allometric scaling laws; Kyoto Protocol; CO2 emissions; carbon dioxide; carbon emissions; greenhouse gases; energy consumption; fertiliser consumption; recovered paper; global warming; Europe.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2010.032196

International Journal of Global Warming, 2010 Vol.2 No.1, pp.81 - 95

Published online: 15 Mar 2010 *

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