A Study On The Correlation Of Carbon Dioxide Emissions And Poverty

<p>In order to explore the correlation between global poverty rates and carbon dioxide emissions, we analyzed datasets from the World Bank Data documenting many important factors relating to energy production. Through the investigation of the amount of CO2 emissions, percent of the population in extreme poverty, and the amount of renewable energy consumption, we discovered a number of interesting correlations: Countries with higher poverty rates tend to also have higher renewable energy consumptions, while countries with low poverty rates are more reliant on fossil fuels. However, in both cases, large quantities of carbon dioxide are released. Further observations revealed that in poorer countries, in the majority of cases, energy was obtained through biomass due to its cost efficiency and accessibility. Investigations into this matter revealed that preparation and maintenance of biomass leads to the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide, presenting a strong hypothesis for why our initial observations suggested no direct correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and poverty.