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        1. What are the Causes?

Who are the main carbon polluters?

World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 2006

© Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy

Source of world CO2 emissions from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels, 2006. Click here to enlarge.

Resource use and responsibility

The world's 7 leading economies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) plus Russia, also known as the G8 - pumped out 40% of world carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2006.

Industrialised countries have the responsibility to begin the process of emission reductions because:
  • They are currently and historically the largest emitters of CO2.
  • Their per capita emissions are many times higher than those of developing countries.
  • They have the finance and the technologies to kick-start energy-saving and clean energy industries.

Per capita CO2 emissions - selected countries

The following graphic shows how much CO2 was emitted per head of population in 2006 in a selection of 8 industrialised and developing countries. The global average was 4.48 tonnes of CO2 per capita - a level far exceeded by industrialised nations.



Source: CO2 emissions data for 2006 from Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy: World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-2006 (only CO2)

Critics of the Kyoto Protocol complain that there are no emission reduction or limitation commitments for developing countries.

However, the understanding that industrialised countries should act first dates from 1992, before the Protocol, and is contained in Article 3.1 of the Climate Convention: " …developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change".

It is unfair to make comparisons when the average American accounts for more than 17 times more CO2 per year than the average Indian.

Expecting the developing world to now take the same steps against CO2 emissions as the wealthy and technologically-advanced industrialised nations would, in the most extreme example, be to place the survival emissions of peasant farmers in the South on a par with the luxury emissions from sports utility vehicles cruising the shopping malls of America.

It's time to act now

Earth Hour: Your Light Switch is Your Vote.
The beginning of the 21st century is a pivotal time for industrialised nations to break the pattern of unsustainable resource use and pollution that characterised the past.

The year 2010 falls in the middle of the so-called first 'commitment period' (2008-2012) agreed in the Kyoto Protocol, at the end of which signatory industrialised nations should have reduced their emissions by 5.2% below their 1990 levels. By this time WWF wants to see the rich nations accelerating their efforts to halt global warming.

Photos and graphics © WWF or used with permission. Text available under a Creative Commons licence. RSS/Web Feeds

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