Economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions

Abstract

The emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are an objective result of the civiliza-tional development of the world. Ensuring a steady decline in CO2emissions in the condi-tions of economic growth and social welfare requires a structural analysis of systemic de-pendencies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the contribution of different socio--economic factors to the changes in carbon dioxide emissions. A decomposition analysis is performed to examine the pace of CO2emission changes in relation to changes in: emissivi-ty of gross domestic product (GDP), productivity of man-hours, number of employees and working time per employee. Statistical data refer to the Polish economy in the period of 1990—2015.The results provided in this paper show that the economic growth in Poland had the most noticeable contribution to CO2emission changes. The solid growth of economy was ac-companied by decreasing emissivity of GDP. The increase in the labour supply, observed in some periods, contributed to the relative growth of that factor in pollutant emission changes. Considering the growing labour productivity, efforts to increase employment should be correlated with decreasing number of working hours per employee.