China’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 exceeded those of the U.S. and other developed nations combined, with the nation of over 1.4 billion people being responsible for more than 27 percent of total global emissions.
The findings are in a report published on Thursday by the research and consulting firm, Rhodium Group. The report shows that China’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019 reached 14 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Rhodium Group provides annual estimates of economy-wide emissions for more than 190 countries. The latest data looks at emissions from 1990 to 2019. Six greenhouse gases, including CO2 and methane, are measured.
During the past three decades, China’s GHG emissions have more than tripled, and with being responsible for more than 27 percent of emissions worldwide, China edges out the U.S., which is the world’s second-highest emitter, accounting for 11 percent of the global total. India is responsible for 6.6 percent of global emissions, while the 27 nations in the EU account for 6.4 percent, the report said.
The Rhodium group also explains that with China being a very large country, “its size has meant that its per capita emissions have remained considerably lower than those in the developed world.”
With global data for 2020 is still coming in, Rhodium expects China’s per capita emissions to exceed the global average in 2020, as China’s net GHG emissions grew around 1.7 percent while emissions from almost all other nations declined sharply in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings come after a climate summit President Joe Biden hosted last month, during which Chinese President, Xi Jinping, reiterated his pledge to make sure the nation’s emissions peak by 2030. Xi also recommitted his country to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury.
“We must be committed to multilateralism,” Xi said during brief remarks at the summit. “China looks forward to working with the international community, including the United States, to jointly advance global environmental governance.”
It goes without saying, though, that these increases in GHG emissions are putting the world farther behind in reaching the 2015 Paris climate goals said Kate Larsen, head of international climate policy research at the Rhodium Group, reports Scientific American.
“The shifting dynamics of global emissions—with China surpassing the developed world for the first time—means that meeting the Paris goals will require significant and rapid action from all countries,” Larsen said in an email.
Larsen also said that China’s emissions have grown “largely as a result of higher standards of living, comparatively fossil-intensive electric power, and its role as the manufacturer of goods consumed around the world.”
This type of growth carries implications for how emissions in other developing countries could accelerate if they follow a similar pathway.
