The landscape of CO2 emissions across Africa: A comparative perspective

This paper provides evidence on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 51 African and 132 other countries in 163 sectors over the period 1995–2015. The resulting landscape is summarised in four patterns. Patterns identified for Africa differ from those identified for other regions but are closely related to a synthetic aggregate comparator based on key country characteristics. (1) All regions have reduced emission intensities over the period 1995–2015. Africa's share of global CO2 emissions has remained constant from 1995 to 2015. (2) The carbon intensity of production has increased in Africa in both decades. Over half of the 20 top African emitting countries shifted towards more carbon-intensive techniques. (3) Over 1995–2015, intra-regional shares of emissions fell by seven percentage points to 84% for Africa. Africa's share of emissions originating from Asia rose from 4% to 11%. Europe's share of emissions from Africa rose from 2% to 4%, respectively. (4) The export basket of Africa is skewed towards high CO2 equivalent-intensity products. CO2 emission intensities correlate positively with output upstreamness (OU) and input downstreamness (ID). The OU/ID indicator of position in a supply chain is negatively correlated with CO2 emission intensities within regions.