Which Countries are the World’s Largest Carbon Polluters?
In terms of the climate crisis, not all countries bear the same level of responsibility. The biggest polluters must act not only to reduce their carbon footprint, but also to offset it by supporting environmental projects around the world.
More than 30 gigatons of CO2 are released into the Earth's atmosphere each year; this is the primary source of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The use of fossil fuels, the generation of energy through non-renewable channels, and polluting human activities account for most of these gases.
According to the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) most recent report, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere broke another record during the last year recorded (2020), despite a drop in fossil fuel consumption.
However, most of this pollution is generated by a few countries: China, for example, accounts for roughly 30% of total global emissions, while the United States accounts for about 14%. The top 10 countries with the highest emissions in 2019, measured in millions of tons of CO2, are shown below. Canada is just shy of the top 10, coming in at 11th with 577 million tons of CO2.
|
Country Rank |
CO2 Emissions (million tons) |
Share of the World |
CO2 Emissions Per Capita (tons) |
|
1: China |
10 065 |
29.18% |
6.86 |
|
2: United States |
5416 |
14.02% |
16.16 |
|
3: India |
2654 |
7.09% |
1.84 |
|
4: Russia |
1711 |
4.65% |
11.31 |
|
5: Japan |
1162 |
3.47% |
9.31 |
|
6: Germany |
759 |
2.17% |
9.52 |
|
7: Iran |
720 |
1.89% |
8.98 |
|
8: South Korea |
659 |
1.80% |
12.15 |
|
9: Saudi Arabia |
621 |
1.69% |
17.5 |
|
10: Indonesia |
615 |
1.56% |
2.01 |
|
11: Canada |
577 |
1.35% |
15.59 |
Carbon Emissions by Country: Top 15 (treehugger.com)
With 2 of the biggest world leaders accounting for almost 50% of CO2 emissions, without their leadership and efforts against fighting climate change we won’t be able to meet the Paris Agreement. Canada isn’t doing so well when we look at the per capita stats. Canada is just behind United states with 15.59 tons per capita. We need to push towards implementing more clean renewable energy sources. The use of oil and natural gas for electricity and heat production is very high in Canada which is why we need to switch clean sources like solar or wind.
