A LMDI DECOMPOSITION AND DECOUPLING EFFORT ANALYSIS OF THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND CO2 EMISSIONS PER CAPITA FROM INDIVIDUALS AND SET IN CENTRAL AMERICA

This article focuses on the analysis of the main determinant drivers of CO2 emission changes together with the state of decoupling for a set of six Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama, in four 5-year time-spans, between the years of 1994-2014. To accomplish the first objective proposed, initially, the LMDI Decomposition Method is applied to each individual country in the panel; and then the Tapio indicator is used to evaluate the state of decoupling between CO2 emissions and economic growth. The most significant negative emission changes for CO2 occur in the last period, 2010-2014, which many be linked to the negative and significant effects of a reduction in fossil fuels derived from the carbon and energy intensity. In individual terms, and still considering this time span (2010-2014), Panama and Mexico present the most significant negative mean variations when the two approaches are considered, both including or excluding the effect of renewable productivity. In the Tapio indicator analysis, there is no evidence, in any of the time windows considered, of the optimal situation - a reduction in emissions accompanied by an increase in economic growth - for any economy in Central America.