Kaya Identity: Drivers of CO₂ Emissions

• This interactive graph and table allows students to explore the drivers of CO₂ emissions over time in various countries and for the world.
• Students can customize the data, sort the table, and clearly see the connection between population, per capita GDP, and emissions.
  

Positives

• The charts and data are easy to use and can be downloaded.
• Students may enjoy looking at how different the emissions are in different countries over time.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should know how to read a line graph and be familiar with the term GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
• The values identified and quantified in the graph and table include GDP per capita, population, carbon intensity, energy intensity, and carbon intensity per GDP. 
  

Differentiation

• Students may be interested to see that energy intensity has gone down over time, meaning that we have been getting more efficient at producing energy, even though emissions have continued to go up. Discuss this with your students and have them discuss solutions based on the data in the graph.
  
• Connections can be made with math classes working on graphing linear equations or analyzing data.
• Geography and social studies classes can use this data to research economic, developmental, or societal solutions that will reduce the drivers of emissions.

This resource used GDP per capita with population for regions and the world from 1870 onwards and also used GDP per capita in 1990 dollars with the most current time series on growth of GDP per capita and the 1990 Maddison benchmark. This historical data has been weighted to get inflation and GDP for countries under study. Also in the resource, population, carbon intensity, energy intensity, and GDP per capita are key drivers of CO₂ emissions. The method used to aggregate the drivers of CO₂ emissions are appropriate and recommended.