Latvia

THE REPUBLIC OF Latvia, located in the Baltic, and until 1991 a constituent part of the Soviet Union, has a land area of 24,937 sq. mi. (64,589 sq. km.), a population of 2,277,000 (2006 est.), and a population density of 93 people per sq. mi. (36 people per sq. km.). Twenty-seven percent of the country is arable, with a further 13 percent used for meadows and pasture, much of that for raising cattle or dairy farming, contributing to the high per capita methane emission level.

Latvia generates 67 percent of its electricity from hydropower, with the remaining 33 percent from fossil fuels. As a result of this heavy use of hydroelec-tricity, Latvia produced 4.8 metric tons per capita of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 1992, falling to ...