Botswana's carbon emission per capita is higher than that of Africa and even Latin America.

At a workshop held yesterday to prepare Botswana's position at the conference on Climate Change to be held in Poland next month, chief meteorologist David Lesolle revealed that Botswana emits 2.44 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita.

This is much higher than the emission for the rest of Africa which stands at 0.91 tonnes per capita. Latin America emits 2.14 tonnes per capita.

Lesolle said Botswana's emission is higher because the country is "energy wasteful".

"We live lights on even when we don't need them. Nowadays a lot of people have cars. We use carbon to produce our electricity in Morupule Power Station," he said.Department of meteorology services director, Phetolo Phage said that the energy and transport sectors were among the major contributors to carbon emissions in Botswana.

He said that if the Botswana Power Corporation calls on people to reduce the use of power, then the amount of carbon emitted will be less. "In the production of power in Morupule, there is a lot of coal being used.

If we used energy-saving bulbs, then we will save and emit less carbon.

We should resort to using solar energy because this will help to reduce pressure from Morupule Power Station," he said.