League table of carbon emitters

(Ewen Cameron)

Following is a ranking by volume of the world's 30 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.

The right-hand column gives the country's emissions per head of population with, in brackets, the world ranking in per-capita terms.

COUNTRY EMISSIONS (a) % WORLD TOTAL PER CAPITA (b)

1. China 7,219.2 MT 19.12 percent 5.5 tonnes (72nd)

2. US 6,963.8 18.44 23.5 (7)

3. EU-27 5,047.7 13.37 10.3 (39)

4. Russia 1,960.0 5.19 13.7 (18)

5. India 1,852.9 4.91 1.7 (120)

6. Japan 1,342.7 3.56 10.5 (37)

7. Brazil 1,014.1 2.69 5.4 (74)

8. Germany 977.4 2.59 11.9 (25)

9. Canada 731.6 1.94 22.6 (8)

10. Britain 639.8 1.69 10.6 (36)

11. Mexico 629.9 1.67 6.1 (65)

12. Indonesia 594.4 1.57 2.7 (101)

13. Iran 566.3 1.50 8.2 (54)

14. Italy 565.7 1.50 9.7 (45)

15. France 550.3 1.46 9.0 (47)

16. S. Korea 548.7 1.45 11.4 (31)

17. Australia 548.6 1.45 26.9 (5)

18. Ukraine 484.7 1.28 10.3 (40)

19. Spain 438.7 1.16 10.1 (41)

20. S. Africa 422.8 1.12 9.0 (48)

21. Turkey 393.2 1.04 5.5 (73)

22. Poland 374.6 0.99 9.8 (44)

23. S. Arabia 374.3 0.99 16.2 (13)

24. Thailand 351.3 0.93 5.6 (71)

25. Argentina 318.3 0.84 8.2 (53)

26. Nigeria 296.6 0.79 2.1 (112)

27. Taiwan 271.2 0.72 11.8 (26)

28. Venezuela 266.3 0.71 10.0 (43)

29. Pakistan 240.6 0.64 1.5 (128)

30. Neth'lands 224.4 0.59 13.8 (16)

NOTES:

(a) millions of tonnes (MT). The emissions are for six greenhouse gases, expressed as the equivalent in carbon dioxide (CO2e).

(b) The world's four biggest emitters, in per capita terms, are Qatar (55 tonnes per head), the United Arab Emirates (38.8 tonnes), Kuwait (35.0 tonnes) and Luxembourg (27.5 tonnes).

SOURCE:

World Resources Institute's Climate Analysis Tool (2009), rating 186 countries. Figures are for 2005.