On Sunday, it is scheduled to hold what was described as the fateful summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Then world leaders gather at the United Nations Climate Summit (COP26) to try once again to agree on a common solution to the climate crisis.
There is no doubt that the United States and China are the worst culprits when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Any attempt to reduce global emissions means that the United States and China are playing along with the rest of the world.
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But who is really the worst in the climate? CNN He tried to get to the heart of the matter, reviewed a number of analyzes and reports that could answer the question.
They write that China currently has more than twice the emissions of the United States. But this was not always the case. From a historical perspective, it is the United States that has released the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
China emits 2.5 times more than the United States, but…
In 2019, China’s carbon dioxide emissions were about 2.5 times higher than the total emissions of the United States in the same year. China’s 2019 emissions account for more than the total carbon dioxide emissions of all developing countries in the world in the same year, according to an analysis by rhodium group.
China overtook the United States in total annual climate emissions through 2006.
Greenhouse gases are a common term for a number of gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases) that harm the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. But gases have different heating effects on the planet.
Therefore a separate unit is used in climate accounting – «carbon dioxide equivalents»- where various greenhouse gases are converted to carbon dioxide values. China emitted up to 14.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019. The US emissions totaled 5.7 billion tons in 2019. This represents 11 percent of total emissions worldwide – followed by India at 6.6 percent and the European Union at 6.4 percent.
However, from a historical perspective, it is the United States as a whole that has emitted most of the world’s greenhouse gases. The United States has emit nearly twice as much greenhouse gases as China since 1850.
Scientists believe that climate emissions a hundred years ago, contribute to the warming of the planet today. At the same time that China’s economic and industrial development accelerated in the 2000s, there was also a significant increase in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
However, Western industrialized nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom and a number of European countries have been polluting for nearly 200 years.
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Historically, the United States is at its worst
british organization carbon brief He analyzed and estimated that China has emitted 280 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent since 1850. The United States, in turn, has 509 billion tons of emissions from 1850 on its conscience. This equates to 20 percent of total global emissions since 1850. China ended up in second place with 11 percent, Russia in third with 7 percent, and Brazil and Indonesia with 5 and 4 percent, respectively. Germany and the United Kingdom have 4 and 3 per cent, respectively.
“Total cumulative emissions (cumulative editor’s notes) between 1850 and 2021 make up 86 percent of the carbon budget if we want to have a 50 percent chance of staying below 1.5, or 89 percent if we want to have a two-thirds chance,” it reads the report Carbon Brief.
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At today’s pace, it will take 150 years to reduce emissions enough
exhausted within ten years
Thus, the carbon budget is a simplified representation of how much carbon dioxide the world could emit to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees or two compared to pre-industrial levels.
“Since the start of 2022, there is a 50 percent chance that the remaining 1.5 degree target carbon budget will be exhausted within ten years, if annual emissions continue at the same levels. While there is a two thirds probability that the 1.5 degree budget will be exhausted within Seven years,” Carbon Brave wrote.
China has a population of about 1.3 billion, while that of the United States is about 329 million. Thus, the average annual per capita emissions are lower in China than in the United States.
In the United States, per capita emissions will be 17.6 tons in 2019, while in China it is 10.1 tons, according to rhodium group.
Hairy goals at the climate summit
Since the Industrial Revolution, the average global temperature has risen by 1.2 degrees. COP26 declared that the very ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees must be within reach.
Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide (Labour) said on Monday, when he told the Norwegian press on the Glasgow climate negotiations, that 1.5 degrees is the new two-degree target.
Even if we achieve the most ambitious goal from Paris, we have already succeeded in limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees and then moving to a carbon-neutral future where we emit no more greenhouse gases than we capture – as Eddie said, it is a very difficult goal So this world is much worse than the one we live in now.
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