Who got us into this mess? Part 4 - emissions per capita

We now know which countries are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases both historically and today. But again that’s not the whole story. Two of the world’s biggest three emitters, China and India, are also the most populous countries in the world, so it follows that they would also be up the rankings for total greenhouse gas emissions. So what if you adjusted emissions for population? What does the top 20 look like then?

Again using information from Our World in Data, we’ve created the chart below showing the top 20 countries for greenhouse gas emissions per capita in 2021.

Adjusting for population drops the United States down to 14th place, and China and India drop out of the top 20 completely (China is 41st and India all the way down in 152nd place). This time New Zealand almost makes the top 20 though, sitting in 22nd place.

The top emitters instead are smaller countries that generally produce a lot of oil and gas. Fossil fuels make up a significant portion of their economy and therefore it could be expected that their voices could be shouting the loudest in opposition when moves to reduce global reliance on fossil fuels are suggested.

An interesting aside can be found in Carbon Brief’s analysis, which attempts to calculate cumulative per capita emissions by country. The countries listed there are different again, but apportioning responsibility to them becomes challenging in several instances because the majority of their greenhouse gas emissions relate to the clearance of native forest by foreign settlers and under colonisation.