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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Climate Change and Energy Issues in the North

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Highly industrialized societies are mostly responsible for the emerging anthropogenic climate change. There are different ways to measure this responsibility (e.g., whether based on causal contribution or strict responsibility, see Muller et al. 2007). However, regardless of the specific method applied to measure the impact, presently, the USA and the EU are the global leaders in green house gas emissions with countries such as China, India and Brazil following closely behind. Globally, GHG emissions are still increasing among the highly industrialized countries, particularly in the USA – a country that never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. However, the EU has managed to curb its emissions, compared to 1990 levels, even if its relative burden still remains high. There are also considerable regional differences within Europe with regard to successful mitigation measures. Within the Nordic countries, national differences are also quite evident. Denmark and Sweden have curbed their emissions, while in Finland and in Norway (not a member of the European Union), total GHG emissions are still on the rise.