There is a growing number of research showing that global warming, caused by climate change, is having a significant impact on the Arctic. A huge amount of research reports that the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world over the past 43 years.
Within world climate summits, everyone is fighting extremely hard to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. The global community regularly reminds countries to reduce their carbon emissions, with a particular focus on the highest-emitting countries.
But should these countries bear more responsibility for their carbon emissions?
The infographic below uses data from the Global Carbon Atlas to demonstrate which countries contribute the most to CO₂ emissions.
According to the Global Carbon Atlas, China and India accounted for 30.9 per cent and 7.3 per cent of the world’s CO₂ respectively in 2021. The U.S. also accounted for 13.5 per cent.
However, in terms of CO2 emissions per capita (metric tonnes), the U.S. is relatively high at 15.32, while China and India rank much lower at 7.44 and 1.89 respectively.
Usually, such data is used to call China to account as one of the main polluters. Although much of the CO₂ emissions of China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Russia are generated by the production of raw materials or goods for Western countries’ demand, such as the U.S., UK and EU countries.
Consequently, the per centage of emissions from China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Russia would have decreased substantially without this production. If emissions were linked to the final consumer, the graphic would look quite different.
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