Can natural factors explain any cross-country differences in carbon dioxide emissions?

This article examines what role natural factors play in explaining cross-co untry differences in carbon dioxide emissions. Natural factors mean here di fferences in the climatic conditions. the availability of renewable and fos sil fuel resources and the transportation requirements of countries. While income remains the main variable. regression results shock that natural fac tors contribute significantly to an explanation of cross-country difference s in carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore. drastic differences in natural conditions can lead to substantial differences in predicted emission requir ements for individual countries at approximately the same level of income. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.