Australia Tops List For Carbon Dioxide Producers
Posted on: Friday, 11 September 2009, 12:40 CDT
A risk consultant firm says Australians are now the world's biggest individual producers of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global warming.
Maplecroft said Australia's per capita output is at 20.58 tons a year, which is four percent higher than the U.S. and above all the other 185 countries on the list.
The other countries in the top five on the list are Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. China still is the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter, followed by the U.S.
The British firm said that China and India's per person carbon production was just 4.5 and 1.16 tons, which is a big contrast to their big overall numbers.
"Australia has about five times the per capita emissions of China for instance but China produces over 20 times the carbon emissions of Australia because China has such a huge population," University of Adelaide professor Barry Brook told public broadcaster ABC.
"So you can play around with these numbers all you want but ultimately what matters is the total global carbon budget," he said.
"And unless humanity as a whole can find solutions to that problem, then all of that petty bickering amongst nations about who's more or less responsible isn't really going to be very helpful."
This report was released ahead of a major UN summit in Copenhagen, which will take place in December. This meeting is planning to hammer out a new climate change treaty.
Australia has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent by 2020.
However, last month the Senate did not pass the emissions trading legislation, which leaves Australia's 2020 goal in doubt.
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Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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