carbon emissions

Based on direct analysis of gases found trapped in cores of polar ice, it is known that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide for several thousands of years before 1750 was about 280 parts per million. Between 1750 and 2000, during which industrialisation has occurred, the concentration rose by about 31% to 368 parts per million. The IPCC report noted that the current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not been exceeded during the past 420,000 years and that “the rate of increase over the past century is unprecedented, at least during the past 20,000 years

Two thirds of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere originates from the G7 countries, with currently 13 per cent of the world’s population

The United States curreently produces more than 5 tons of carbon per person per year. Japan and Western European nations have per capita emissions that range from 1.6 tons to 4.2 tons, with most below 3 tons. In the developing world, emissions average 0.6 tons per capita, with China at 0.76 and India at 0.29. This means that to reach an 'even-handed' per capita annual emission limit of 1 ton of carbon per person, India would be able to increase its carbon emission to more than three times what they now are. China would be able to increase its emissions a more modest 33 per cent. The United States, on the other hand, would have to reduce its emissions to no more than one-fifth of present levels.

Researchers measured world carbon emissions from 1950 to 1986 and found that the United States, with about 5% of the world's population, was responsible for 30% of the cumulative emissions, whereas India, with 17% of the world's population, was responsible for less than 2% of the emissions. It is as if, in a village of 20 people all using the same bathtub, one person had shed 30% of the hair blocking the drain hold and 3 people had shed virtually no hair at all.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed to in 1992, and ... has been accepted by 181 governments... The developed nations committed themselves to 1990 levels of emissions by the year 2000, but this commitment was not legally binding. For the United States and several other countries, that was just as well, because they came nowhere near meeting it. In the US, for example, by 2000 carbon emissions were 14% higher than they were in 1990. Nor was the trend improving, for the increase between 1999 and 2000 was 3.1%, the biggest one year increase since the mid 1990s.