Greenhouse gas emissions in industrialised countries: where does Australia stand?

The international climate change community is increasingly turning its attention to proposals to base future greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations at least in part on a per capita principle. In the case of industrialised countries, expectations about the responsibility to take action have been, and will increasingly be, influenced by each country's overall contribution to the climate problem as well as by perceptions of the contribution to climate change of individual citizens in each country. To date, only data on energy-related emissions per capita have been available. When measured on this partial basis, Australia's per capita emissions are high but not as high as the US. The paper reports calculations showing per capita greenhouse emissions on a comprehensive basis for all industrialised countries. The results show that Australians have the highest emissions per person of all industrialised countries. A summary is available online.