# 2.3.2 Total carbon footprints

The picture of carbon footprints changes again when you consider total CO2 emissions for different countries rather than emissions per person. Table 4 shows that by 2011 China had become by far the greatest total emitter of CO2, followed by the USA and India. In terms of consumption-based emissions too, the three greatest CO2 emitters were China, the USA and India (CCC, 2013).

## Table 4 Total territorial carbon dioxide emissions for selected countries (CDIAC, 2015; Global Carbon Atlas, 2016)

Country | Total CO 2 (2011), million tonnes per year (rounded) | Total CO 2 (2015 est.), million tonnes per year (rounded)
China | 9020 | 9680
United States | 5306 | 5561
India | 2074 | 2597
Russian Federation | 1808 | 1595
Japan | 1188 | 1232
Germany | 730 | 789
Saudi Arabia | 520 | 602
South Africa | 477 | 476
United Kingdom | 448 | 428
Brazil | 439 | 507
Australia | 369 | 382
France | 339 | 331
Turkey | 321 | 573
Thailand | 303 | 337
Egypt | 221 | 237
Pakistan | 164 | 168
Nigeria | 88.0 | 93.6
Romania | 84.8 | 72.6
Israel | 69.5 | 67.2
Sweden | 52.1 | 44.3
Ireland | 36.1 | 35.9
Uganda | 3.8 | 4.3
World average (mean) | 150.8 | (World total 36 292)

(CDIAC, 2015; Global Carbon Atlas, 2016)
Note: the CO2 emissions shown in Tables 2 and 4 are based on from burning fossil fuels, cement manufacture and gas flaring.

Figure 10 shows more of the same information updated using estimations to 2015, when China, USA and India emitted half of the world’s CO2.

Figure 10Estimated total territorial CO2 emissions in 2015 (Global Carbon Atlas, 2016)

OpenLearn - Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
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