Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the monetary value of all finished goods and services made within a country during a specific period. GDP per capita measures a country’s GDP per person. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita are measured in tonnes per person per years. Per the following chart, CO2 emissions growth appears to track GDP growth:
But appearances can be deceiving. There’s lots (tonnes?) of country-level variability in the global data. For example, consider the per capita emissions divided by GDP per capita of the top twenty CO2 emitting countries, circa 2016:
Obviously there’s no one-to-one association between GDP and CO2 emissions. Other factors come into play, like the particular fuel mix used to generate electricity in a given locale. Speaking of which, look at France in the above chart. Why are the CO2 emissions so low for such a rich country? Two words: nuclear power. In France, nuclear power generates 70.6% of electricity, compared to 20% generated by nuclear in the US.