Year 9 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 22
Challenge Worksheet
Learning Goals
1. (a) What is energy intensity, and what does a fall in it mean? (b) When Australia exports coal, whose emissions figures count the CO₂ from burning it?
A claim to test
A politician says: “Australia produces only about 1% of the world’s CO₂, so what we do makes no difference.”
| Place | CO₂ emitted (million t) | Population (millions) |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 384 | 26.5 |
| World | 38,100 | 8,092 |
Carbon: Global Carbon Budget (2025). People: UN estimates (2024).
2. Calculate (a) Australia’s share of world CO₂ emissions, (b) Australia’s share of the world’s population, and (c) how many times larger the first share is than the second. Give (a) and (b) to two decimal places.
(a) Share of world CO₂ %
(b) Share of world population %
(c) Times larger
3. Use your answers to evaluate the politician’s claim.
Spot the errors: two students’ working
Working A. Nation P uses 12,000 kWh per person each year and produces 60,000 dollars of GDP per person. Nation Q uses 4,000 kWh per person and produces 10,000 dollars of GDP per person. “P uses three times as much energy per person as Q, so Q is three times more efficient.”
Working B. “Between 2010 and 2025 a nation’s GDP grew by 60% and its energy intensity fell by 25%. So the energy it used rose by 60% − 25% = 35%.”
These are sample values for this worksheet.
4. Explain what is wrong with each piece of working, and write the correct answer with your own working.
| Working | What is wrong | Correct answer and working |
|---|---|---|
| A | ||
| B |
Real-world data: CO₂ and human development, 2023
The Human Development Index (HDI) combines health, education and income into one score from 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest).
| Country | CO₂ per person (t per year) | HDI |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 14.3 | 0.938 |
| Australia | 14.5 | 0.958 |
| Norway | 7.0 | 0.970 |
| France | 4.1 | 0.920 |
| China | 8.6 | 0.797 |
| India | 2.1 | 0.685 |
| Bangladesh | 0.6 | 0.685 |
Source: Global Carbon Budget (2025), UNDP (2025) and Ember, at ourworldindata.org.
5. Describe the general relationship between CO₂ per person and HDI in Table 2, and name the countries that do not fit it.
6. Norway gets about nine tenths of its electricity from hydro power, and France about two thirds from nuclear power. Both have an HDI above 0.9 but less than half of Australia’s CO₂ per person. Explain why, and what this shows about development and emissions. Then compare India with Bangladesh.
The debate: who should carry the cost?
At climate talks, developing countries have argued: “Wealthy countries such as Australia and the United States grew rich by burning fossil fuels, and caused most of the CO₂ behind today’s climate problem. They should pay most of the cost of the switch to clean energy.”
7. Evaluate this argument. Build a case for it and a case against it, using data from this worksheet, then give your own reasoned conclusion.