2015

0.4% of the global population lives in Austria, Czech Republic or Switzerland and together they emitted 0.6% of the global CO2 from fossil fuels in 2012 – the joint share of the global Climate Debt is 0.7%. Austria’s updated Climate Debt per capita is $2,400 (ranked 19th), Czech Republic’s is $1,137 (ranked 34th) and Switzerland’s is $969 (ranked 38th). See the ‘ranking’. The following examines the Climate Debt trends and the indicators of CO2 Emissions (carbon dioxide from fossil fuels), Nuclear Power, Environmental Performance, GDP(ppp-$) and Climate Debt as a percentage of GDP(ppp-$).

The three diagrams below show the CO2 Emissions per capita in decades of Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland in comparison with the world average (the grey bars). The green bars show the Contribution Free Level in ClimatePositions – the free level is determined by CO2 Emissions in 1990s and a number of continuously updated ‘indicators’.

The next three diagrams show the CO2 Emissions per capita 2000-2013 (2013-emissions are preliminary estimates). The total amounts of CO2 Emissions exceeded per capita since 2000 are: Austria 26.1 tons, Czech Republic 15.2 tons and Switzerland 5.9 tons. The exceeded emissions are the basis of the calculation of national Climate Debt.

Switzerland is the world’s 4th largest per capita Nuclear Power generator and Czech Republic is 9th. The diagram below shows the per capita generation since 2000. Austria has no Nuclear Power generation.

In ClimatePositions Nuclear Power generation must be reduced at the same rate as CO2 Emissions from fossil fuels, because large quantities of dangerous radioactive nuclear waste are left for hundreds of generations to deal with in the future.

The Environmental Performance tends to be more domestically focused and rich countries often perform better than poor (environmental problems are often exported to developing countries). See the relative performance of the three countries, with the average of 180 countries set at 100 in the diagram below. Examine the detailed scores at the source: ‘Austria’ (ranked 8th), ‘Czech Republic’ (ranked 5th) and ‘Switzerland’ (ranked 1rd).

The GDP(ppp-$) per capita since 2000 of Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, France and the world average, is shown in the diagram below. Switzerland’s superior wealth is due to its large financial sector (so called “tax heaven” diminishing other countries company taxes).

The Climate Debt calculated as percentages of the GDP(ppp-$) annually since 2000, of the same five countries, are shown in the diagram below. The Austrian and Czech the rate of growth is higher than the others. See the ‘ranking’.

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Information on national GDP(ppp-$) per capita: Worldbank (links in the menu “Calculations”).

Source on CO2 Emissions: EIA, U.S. Energy Information Administration and data on preliminary national CO2 Emissions are from Global Carbon Project (links in the menu “Calculations”).

Source on Environmental Performance: Yale and Columbia University reports, published 2006-2014 (links in the menu “Calculations”).

Data on national Nuclear Power generation: World Nuclear Association (links in the menu “Calculations”).

Image with flags by Claus Andersen, 2015.