The National-Level Energy Ladder and its Carbon Implications

Paul Burke ()

CCEP Working Papers from Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: This paper documents an energy ladder that nations ascend as their per capita incomes increase. On average, economic development results in an overall substitution from the use of biomass to fulfill energy needs to energy sourced from fossil fuels, and then toward nuclear power and certain low-carbon modern renewables such as wind power. The results imply an inverse-U shaped relationship between per capita income and the carbon intensity of energy, which is borne out in the data. Fossil fuel-poor countries are more likely to climb to the upper rungs of the national-level energy ladder and experience reductions in the carbon intensity of energy as they develop than fossil fuel-rich countries. Leapfrogging to low-carbon energy sources on the upper rungs of the national-level energy ladder is one route via which developing countries can reduce the magnitudes of their expected upswings in carbon dioxide emissions.

JEL-codes: O11 O13 Q43 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://ccep.anu.edu.au/data/2011/pdf/wpapers/CCEP1116Burke.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The national-level energy ladder and its carbon implications (2013)
Working Paper: The National-Level Energy Ladder and its Carbon Implications (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:ccepwp:1116

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