High consumption of energy produced from natural resources increases CO2 emission but not always positively impacts GDP. If the country consumes a lot of energy and doesn’t develop, it means that both energy use and industrial sector are ineffective.
Largest consumers of energy are also the gravest environment polluters
Several studies identified a direct link between the CO2 emission and economic development: when economy increases so does CO2 emission. Thus, it’s not a surprise that TOP-10 world’s biggest polluters of the environment are also largest consumers of oil and coal. They are also the world’s largest economies – increase in production requires more energy and thus increases the СО2 emission. Besides largest consumers of natural recourses, its largest exporters – Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Canada are as well on the list of major polluters.
Low GDP and high СО2 emission are traits of the ineffective economy
Ukrainian industrial sector is ineffective. As an agrarian country, we have a high level of СО2 emission and low GDP level. It means that our outdated industrial sector consumes a lot of energy and produces few products and thus we cause too much environmental pollution. At the same time, such large environmental polluters as China, USA, and Japan directly benefit from it. Even though their production sector pollutes environment it also stimulates the GDP growth as well as improves the quality of life of their citizens.
The larger is the population, the more a country has to produce for its welfare. The overwhelming industrialization used to be the main way of development. Industrial countries consume and produce a lot. If a country’s industrial sector becomes outdated and ineffective, it carries on consuming the same amount of energy (or even more), but the production output decreases.
That’s what is happening in Ukraine right now. Our country is ranked 5th in the world in СО2 emission per 1 dollar of GDP. Ukrainian industrial sector requires modernization and improvement of efficiency, otherwise, it will continue to pollute the environment and fail to increase the welfare of its citizens.