Patterns of historical CO2 intensity transitions among high and low-income countries

This article examines the long-term relationship between CO2 emissions and economic development for various high-income OECD countries that, in turn, are compared with pattern for developing countries. A majority of high-income countries have experienced environmental Kuznets curve types of transitions with respect to CO2 intensity (emissions per GDP), while the these patterns are absent in the poorer countries. Moreover, the overall historical pattern is one of convergence with respect to intensities. These observations are consistent with an explanation that takes into account includes time-specific, or vintage technology. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.