Friday, September 20, 2019

The World's Worst Climate Sinners



If we want to avoid a climate change catastrophe then every person on Earth needs to restrict their CO2 output to 2.7 tonnes a years. For comparison, if you took a return flight from Vienna to New York in economy class, you would consume about 2.8 tonnes of CO2.

Moment has created an interactive map which shows which countries around the world are currently exceeding the 2.7 tonnes of CO2 output per person, and in which countries the population are outputting less. On the World Map of Climate Sinners the countries colored red/pink are largely responsible for climate heating. The countries colored green have reasons to be very upset with the rest of the world.

If you select a country on the map you can view the per capita annual CO2 output. For example, in the USA the average person produces around 15.74 tonnes of CO2 every year. This is around 6 times more than the 2.7 tonnes per person which would limit global heating to around 2 ° C by 2050.

America isn't alone in causing global heating. People in most of the developed world are exceeding the target 2.7 tonnes of CO2 output. In fact the developed world is even more guilty than the map shows. On this map CO2 output from manufacturing is shown in the country of manufacture. Much of the consumption in the developed world is the consumption of products developed in the developing world. Therefore on this map a lot of consumption in the developed world is shown as developing world CO2 output.

The target of 2.7 tonnes of CO2 output per person was calculated by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. This target, it is estimated, would limit global heating to 2 ° C by 2050.

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