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Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
Environment: treading lightly on the Earth

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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 CO2 (2011), million tonnes per year (rounded) Total CO2 (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)

Footnotes  

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.

Described image
Figure 10 Estimated total territorial CO2 emissions in 2015 (Global Carbon Atlas, 2016)
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Figure 10 is a world map with the continents and countries within them shown in outline. There are solid black circles superimposed over each country. The area of each circle represents the relative size of the estimated total carbon footprint in 2015 from the use of fossil fuels within that country in tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The map shows for example that by far the largest total carbon footprint in the world is that of China, followed by the United States and India. Smaller in size and similar are the carbon footprints of Russia and Japan. The total carbon footprints of the UK, South Africa and Australia smaller still and also similar. The smallest total carbon footprints occur in many African developing countries. The actual sizes of the total carbon footprints can be found by hovering a cursor over online version of the map.

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