Lower Oil Prices Lead to Higher CO2 Emissions
If the price of oil decreases, carbon dioxide emissions increase. This is what two Spanish scientists claim after comparing the relationship between air pollution and economic development by using the real oil prices in Spain between 1874 and 2011 as an indicator. The scientists suggest a need to design new energy taxes.
In the 1970s, the first environmental movements warned that air pollution was the result of our production and consumption patterns. At that point in time, economists argued that an improvement in per capita income would reduce the level of environmental degradation -- a relationship called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (with an inverted 'U' shape). Later studies would go on to show that they were right.
"Although the level of contamination rises during the first stages of a country's economic development, it then starts to decrease as basic necessities are covered and an increased concern for environmental protection arises," explains Manuel Cantavella to SINC, a researcher at Jaume I University.
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