Study Shows UK Among World’s top ten Carbon Dioxide Emitters
A recent study has shown that the UK is among the world’s top ten nation’s most responsible for the emission of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
The study by Carbon Brief shows that the UK ranks eighth among the world’s nations, having released 74.9 bn giga-tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2) into the atmosphere since 1850, accounting for 3% of the global total of all emissions.
The United States comes in a clear first place, responsible for 509GtCO2, a whopping 20% of the global total. The USA is followed by China (284GtCO2) and Russia(172GtCO2), in second and third place respectively.
In a British context, this study seems to back up climate activist Greta Thunberg’s claim that the UK “are objectively one of the biggest climate villains.”
In her speech at the recent Youth4Climate summit in Milan, the 18 year old activist mocked the governments of the developed world for not backing up their words with effective action on climate change, with the UK coming in for particular criticism.
“"Of course, the climate crisis ... more or less it started in the UK since that's where the industrial revolution started, we started to burn coal there, so of course the UK has an enormous historical responsibility when it comes to historic emissions since the climate crisis is a cumulative crisis” Thunberg said.
At the current rate of emissions, the study suggests that the cumulative total of CO2 emissions has already reached 86% of the Carbon Budget allowed if the world is to stay within the 1.5 degree target for temperature rise set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
It also points out that the UK’s total does not include its emissions from its colonies from the days of empire. Indeed, a common accusation made of developed nations such as the UK by those in the Global South, is that the worst offenders of climate change have no right to lecture poorer nations about any perceived lack of action towards lowering emissions on their part, given that it is wealthier nations – particularly those that had colonial empires – who are largely responsible.
This will no doubt be one of the prickly questions that arises when delegates from around the world converge on Glasgow for COP26 in November.