Go Zero

A new Europe-wide research using an innovative measure of carbon efficiency and real economic progress reveals that Europe is less efficient now at delivering human well-being than it was 40 years ago.

The European Happy Planet Index, reveals for the first time, the carbon efficiency with which 30 European nations produce long, happy lives for their citizens. The new ranking reveals a very different picture of the health and wealth of European nations.

 To get the full story go to http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/european_happy_planet_index_160707.aspx

Unfortunately where one's carbon footprint is concerned, a more interesting and less obvious picture begins to emerge:

•  While is by far the worst country for its carbon footprint per person (so bad in fact that we couldn't fit it on our scale), from a league of 30 nations the comes in fourth from the bottom. and join the and at the bottom of the table as the other countries with worse consumption per head of population.

• The Scandinavian nations have some of the lowest per capita carbon footprints in Europe, despite also being amongst the richest and happiest nations. Some of the differences can be explained by access to domestically available renewable energy sources, but not all. Even wealthy, high consuming has only the ninth largest footprint.
• Europe as whole is responsible for almost three times its fair, global share of carbon emissions.

The message is clear:  we need to more, do it better and do it now.

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posted in [ Transport & Energy News ]