![]() ![]() This means a much lower share of electricity is produced from fossil fuels: in 2015, only 6% of France’s electricity came from fossil fuels, compared to 55% in Germany. The choice of energy sources plays a key role here: in the UK, Portugal and France, a much higher share of electricity is produced from nuclear and renewable sources – you can explore this electricity mix by country here. This is also much lower than some of their neighbours with similar standards of living, such as Germany, the Netherlands, or Belgium. In fact, some European countries have emissions not far from the global average: In 2017 emissions in Portugal are 5.3 tonnes 5.5t in France and 5.8t per person in the UK. Many countries across Europe, for example, have much lower emissions than the US, Canada or Australia. But what becomes clear is that there can be large differences in per capita emissions, even between countries with similar standards of living. Since there is such a strong relationship between income and per capita CO 2 emissions, we’d expect this to be the case: that countries with high standards of living would have a high carbon footprint. This is more than 3 times higher than the global average, which in 2017 was 4.8 tonnes per person. Australia has an average per capita footprint of 17 tonnes, followed by the US at 16.2 tonnes, and Canada at 15.6 tonnes. More populous countries with some of the highest per capita emissions – and therefore high total emissions – are the United States, Australia, and Canada. However, many of the major oil producers have a relatively small population meaning their total annual emissions are low. Most are in the Middle East: In 2017 Qatar had the highest emissions at 49 tonnes (t) per person, followed by Trinidad and Tobago (30t) Kuwait (25t) United Arab Emirates (25t) Brunei (24t) Bahrain (23t) and Saudi Arabia (19t). The world’s largest per capita CO 2 emitters are the major oil producing countries this is particularly true for those with relatively low population size. There are very large inequalities in per capita emissions across the world. Production figures matter – these are the numbers that are taken into account for climate targets 1 – and thanks to historical reconstructions they are available for the entire world since the mid 18th century. In our post on consumption-based emissions we look at how these figures change when we account for trade. Here we look at production-based emissions – that is, emissions produced within a country’s boundaries without accounting for how goods are traded across the world. In the visualization we see the differences in per capita emissions across the world. We can calculate the contribution of the average citizen of each country by dividing its total emissions by its population. * Greenland is not an independent and sovereign country, but territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.Where in the world does the average person emit the most carbon dioxide (CO 2) each year? With 1,147 inhabitants per km² (2,971 per mi²), Bangladesh is the only territorial state in the world to occupy a top position in population density. Illinois is slightly bigger than Bangladesh, and has a population of about 12.8 million. For comparison: Iowa is about the same size, but has just 3.1 million people. Only 27 percent of the population lives outside cities.īangladesh is the only country on the list with a population of 169 million on a relatively small area of only 147,630 km². Only 23 percent of the area lies west of the Urals (the border between Europe and Asia), but 85 percent of the inhabitants live here. Large parts of Russia consist of deserts and permafrost areas. The share of the world population, on the other hand, is only two percent. At 17,098,250 km², it occupies only slightly more space (11%) than China and India combined. ![]() Russia, on the other hand, is by far the largest country on earth in terms of surface area and extends over a length of more than 9,000 km. China's population is now expected to continue to shrink slightly, while India's population will continue to grow. In April 2023, India replaced China as the country with the highest population to date and is now just ahead. Together they account for about 36 percent of the total population and occupy nine percent of the habitable earth's surface. India and China are by far the most populous countries and the only ones with more than one billion inhabitants. The settlement is therefore concentrated primarily in large urban areas with enormous population density. It is noteworthy that all these countries have large uninhabited desert or mountain regions. Only Russia, USA, China, Brazil and India are in the top 10 of both tables. It is noticeable that the first places of both rankings are quite different. ![]()
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