CO₂ Emissions – Who Are the Worst Emitters, In The World?

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) provides official energy statistics from the U. S. Government. The statistics include sources of energy, international comparisons, CO₂ emissions and much more.

Energy Consumption by Source, 1635-2000 (Quadrillion Btu)


Click on the image to see a full size view. (Related report)

Their World Energy Overview: 1993-2003 report and other other EIA data were used for this posting.

Here are some general quotes from that report:

Between 1993 and 2003, the world’s total output of primary energy — petroleum, natural gas, coal, and electric power (hydro, nuclear, geothermal, solar, wind, and wood and waste)–increased at an average annual rate of 1.8 percent.

The United States, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Canada were the world’s five largest producers of energy in 2003, supplying 49.2 percent of the world’s total energy.

The United States, China, Russia, Japan, and Germany were the world’s five largest consumers of primary energy in 2003, accounting for 49.8 percent of world energy consumption.

For world consumption, the report stated:

In 2003, the United States consumed 20.0 million barrels per day of petroleum–25 percent of world consumption.

In 2003, the United States, which was the leading consumer of dry natural gas at 22.4 trillion cubic feet, and Russia, which ranked second at 15.3 trillion cubic feet, together accounted for 39 percent of world consumption.

China was also the largest consumer of coal in 2003, using 1.5 billion short tons, followed by the United States, which consumed 1.1 billion short tons, India, Germany , and Russia.

All of this consumption means more CO₂:

Total world carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of petroleum, natural gas, and coal, and the flaring of natural gas increased from 21.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 1993 to 25.2 billion metric tons in 2003, or by 17.1 percent.

In 2003, the consumption of petroleum was the world’s primary source of carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels, accounting for 42 percent of the total.

Coal ranked second as a source of carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels in 2003, accounting for 37 percent of the total.

Carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption and flaring of natural gas accounted for the remaining 21 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels in 2003.

Now for some charts on petroleum consumption and CO₂ emissions from the EIA data.

The first chart shows consumption of petroleum and the corresponding CO₂ emissions from that consumption. It shows these two data sets for both the U. S. and the world. The red and blue lines represent the U. S. and the light brown and yellow represent the world.

Click on the image to see a full size view.

As you can see, U. S. CO₂ emissions and petroleum consumption have not increased at the same rate as the rest of the world. This may be due to the advanced stable state of our economy and that much of the rest of the world is rapidly catching up with our way of life. There is no doubt that man’s consumption of petroleum products is increasing rapidly and accelerating while growing economies try to reach their stable state. Of course, there is a matching increase in CO₂ due to chemical reactions of our consumption.

The table below summarizes the changes for the four data sets tracked in the chart above. The percentages indicate the growth from 1980 to 2003.

The charts below represent two views of what has been happening to CO₂ emissions since 1980. They both show CO₂ emissions by geographical area: US – United States, RNA – Rest of North America, C&SA – Central and South America, WE – Western Europe, EE – Eastern Europe (Note this time frame includes the 1991 dissolution of the USSR), ME – Middle East, AF – Africa, CH – China, IN – India, JP – Japan, SK – South Korea, RA&O – Rest of Asia and Oceania.

The next chart shows the CO₂ emissions added to the atmosphere in absolute values. They are stacked to show the world total. The fastest emissions growth is in Asia. The only area showing a decrease is EE. It appears that the economies of the former USSR are not ‘progressing’ in line with the rest of the eastern hemisphere. Other more developed areas seem to have relatively stable growth in emissions.

Click on the image to see a full size view.

The chart below displays the same data as the previous one only with each geographical area shown as a percentage of the total emissions. While the emissions from the U. S. have dropped slightly relative to the rest of the world, Asia, the top 5 geographical areas in the chart, has increased it’s share from 19 percent to about 33 percent.

Click on the image to see a full size view.

I leave it to you to come to your own conclusions about the worst CO₂ emitter. But there is no doubt that man is producing lots of CO₂ and with the oceans and atmosphere getting warmer – there is some correlation.