Global emissions of carbon dioxide have risen by 88% since 1971 and are projected to rise by another 52% by 2030. In 1971, the current OECD countries were responsible for 66% of the total. As a consequence of rapidly increasing emissions in the developing world, the OECD contributed 49% to the total in 2004, but this is expected to fall to 38% by 2030. By far, the largest increases in non-OECD countries occurred in Asia, where emissions in China have risen by 5.5% per annum between 1971 and 2004. The use of coal in China increased levels of CO2 by 3.2 billion tons over the 33-year period.
Two significant downturns can be seen in OECD CO2 emissions, following the oil shocks of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Emissions from the economies in transition declined over the last decade, helping to offset the OECD increases between 1990 and the present. However, this decline did not stabilize global emissions as emissions in developing countries grew.
Disaggregating the emissions data shows substantial variations within individual sectors. Between 1971 and 2004, the combined share of electricity and heat generation and transport shifted from one-half to two-thirds of global emissions.
Fossil fuel shares in overall emissions changed slightly during the period. The relative weight of coal in global emissions has remained at approximately 40% since the early 1970s. The share of natural gas has increased from 15% in 1971 to 20% in 2004. Oil’s share decreased from 49% to 40%. Fuel switching and the increasing use of non-fossil energy sources reduced the CO2/total primary energy supply (TPES) ratio by 7% over the past 33 years.
Employment in companies under foreign control
As a percentage of total employment
The shares of foreign affiliates in manufacturing employment show considerable variation across OECD countries ranging from under 10% in Switzerland, Turkey and Portugal to 30% or more in Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Ireland. Employment in the service sector foreign affiliates is lower in all countries although as noted above, comparability is affected in several countries by the exclusion of employment in banking and insurance services.
In the period from 1997 to 2004, employment in foreign-controlled manufacturing affiliates grew or remained stable in all countries for which data is available except Spain and Ireland, where the rate slightly fell and in Austria, Portugal and the United States where the shares have remained fairly stable. Particularly sharp increases were recorded by the Czech Republic, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
Remittances to major remittance receiving countries
As a percentage of GDP
The issue of immigrant remittances is not a new one but it has acquired a certain prominence in recent years, because of the realization that immigrants are transferring to their home countries amounts that significantly exceed the development aid given to the same countries by host-country governments of the countries where they are working. In certain countries, in particular Honduras, Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Haiti, the amounts transferred are equivalent to close to 20% of the national gross domestic product.
As migration continues to increase (by over 3 million persons per year among long-term migrants as well as significantly many short-term migrants), the amounts transferred will continue to increase. Immigrants tend to transfer more in the early years after arrival but less as time goes on and the settlement decision becomes more definitive.
The presence of many Caribbean and Latin American countries in the table reflects the importance of the United States as a major destination country for persons from these countries.
A certain number of OECD countries appear towards the bottom of the table, not all of them for migration-related reasons, however. The remittances for Belgium in particular reflect essentially the large number of residents of that country working cross-border in the Netherlands and especially Luxembourg.
Road motor vehicles
Per thousand population
In 2005, ratios of motor vehicles to population range from 780 per thousand inhabitants in Portugal to 86 in Turkey. Over the periods shown, ratios of vehicles to population increased in all countries except in the United States. Sharp increases of this ratio occurred in Greece, Poland, Iceland and the Russian Federation.
In 2005, road fatalities per million inhabitants ranged from over 237 per million inhabitants in the Russian Federation to 46 in the Netherlands. Over the periods shown, rates decreased in all countries except in the Russian Federation with particularly sharp falls in Portugal, Slovenia, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Finland and Spain.
Road fatality rates per million inhabitants are an ambiguous indicator of road safety since the number of accidents depends to a great extent on the number of vehicles in each country. Rates per million vehicles are affected by driving habits, road design and other factors over which governments may exercise control. In 2005, fatality rates per million vehicles were less than 100 in the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, but exceeded 400 in Slovak Republic and Korea. Note that low fatality rates per million inhabitants may be associated with very high fatality rates per million vehicles. For example, a country with a small vehicle population may show a low fatality rate per million inhabitants but a high fatality rate per vehicle.
