IELTS writing task 1 - Average carbon dioxide emissions per person, 1967-2007

The line graph depicts that four sectors in terms of the amount of acid rain emissions that citizens produced over a period of 17 years in the 4 European countries. In general, while emissions in Italy and Portugal increased, then UK and Sweden saw an opposite trend. However, UK remained the biggest producer of carbon dioxide over the period.

It can be seen from the graph that the production of carbon dioxide in Portugal and Italy were steadily increasing. In 1967, the emissions in Portugal was approximately 1 metric tonnes and it increased steadily to 5 metric tonnes in 1997 before slowing down in the final year. Italy started at 4 metric tonnes and rose gradually overtaking Sweden in 1987 to reached just below 8 metric tonnes in 1997. However, it then remained unchanged until 2007.

In contrast, the UK and Sweden decreased during the same period. United Kingdom had the highest emissions over the period starting at 11 metric tonnes, however the number kept decreasing and reached 9 metric tonnes in 2007. In Sweden, initially there was an increase from 8 to 11 metric tonnes, but then the emissions dropped sharply until the end of the period and reached the same level as Portugal