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Parametrization of intensive global climate change indicators on a level of sovereign states and governments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2019

Micha Tomkiewicz
Micha Tomkiewicz*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklyn, New York 11210, USA; Ph.D Program in Physics and the Ph.D Program in Chemistry, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to Micha Tomkiewicz at [email protected]
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Abstract

This article will show that within well-defined error margins, carbon intensities and energy intensities are independent of the population and GDP of countries and thus can serve as a convenient parametrization of humanity on a sovereign level.

The IPCC, in its fifth international report, states that the two leading contributions to changes in annual CO2 emissions by decade are the changes in population and changes in GDP/capita, which reflect changes in standard of living. This article will show that within well-defined error margins, carbon intensities, and energy intensities (both with respect to GDP) are independent of the population and GDP of countries and thus can serve as a convenient parametrization of humanity. With some imagination, these parameters can serve as input and output indicators that connect the physical environment with the human environment. The article will show that both indicators fit lognormal distribution well without any outliers. The data are based on the World Bank database. Comparing the global distribution with individual world-bank indicators of world-bank country grouping based on socioeconomic conditions quantifies the contributions of global income distribution.

Type
Review Article
Information
MRS Energy & Sustainability , Volume 6 , 2019 , E7
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2019 

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