The graph below shows average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Portugal between 1967 and 2007.
This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 11 Test 3 Writing Task 1.
Average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person, 1967-2007
Sample essay
The line graph displays average carbon dioxide emissions each person in four different countries produced between 1967 and 2007.
Overall, while per-capita carbon emissions in the UK and Sweden went down over the course of this 40-year period, they went up in Italy and Portugal.
Despite a steady decline from about 11 to 9 metric tonnes, emissions in the UK remained higher than in the other three countries over these 40 years. Sweden’s emissions first rose from roughly 9 metric tonnes in 1967 to its maximum of about 10.5 metric tonnes in 1977. They then dropped significantly to only around 5.5 metric tonnes in 2007, making Sweden one of the smallest per-capita emitters of carbon dioxide of the four countries that year.
Average carbon emissions that each person in Italy was responsible for climbed gradually from approximately 4.5 to almost 8 metric tonnes between 1967 and 2007. In Portugal, each person only produced around 1.5 metric tonnes of emissions in 1967. This country’s emissions then grew steadily and reached a similar level to Sweden’s by 2007, at about 5.5 metric tonnes.