Global Climate Leaders and Laggards

By Ciara Shannon

This year there has been an escalation in climate chaos – right now bushfires in Australia burn in five different states and 5+ million of hectares have been razed. Tens of thousands of fires across the Amazon destroyed more than 4.6 million acres of irreplaceable rain forest and many indigenous communities lost their land and livelihoods. Hurricane Dorian utterly devastated the Bahamas leaving 80,000 people homeless; drought spread through Africa, and vital farmland in Bangladesh was lost to sea level rise. Climate change is happening now and requires immediate and ambitious climate action.

85% of New Extraction will Come from North America

The Global Gas and Oil Network’s report says that over the next five years, oil and gas companies intend to invest US$ 1.4 trillion in fossil fuel extraction, locking in the release of 148 Gt of CO2. 85% of this new extraction will come from North America – the United States (much of it from the Permian Basin) and Canada. The other countries are Argentina, China, Norway, Australia, Mexico, UK, Brazil and Nigeria. Just 25 companies are responsible for nearly half of the production and these include European oil majors such as Shell, BP, Total and Equinor.

Yet, if we are to have any chance of keeping global average temperature increase to 1.5°C, we must leave the majority (up to 80%) of fossil fuels in the ground. (Source: Climate Tracker Initiative. Unburnable Carbon (2011). We can’t afford to dig or drill up oil and gas from new fields if we’re to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Country Climate Leaders and Laggards

Based on some research I did, after discounting about 55 countries (which had limited comparable climate data) from the world’s 195 countries, we looked at climate data for 140 countries and identified top emitting and fossil fuel producing countries by looking at per capita and absolute emissions, oil, coal and gas production and consumption, their reserves, as well as countries with high deforestation rates.

We also considered which countries had signficant carbon sinks and which countries were the most vulnerable to climate change and how ‘ready’ they were. On top of this, we looked at countries international and national climate policy and we then ranked all of this data into various lists of ‘top 20’ and identified which countries came up multiple times as key ‘climate offending’ countries. (see below).

Rank	C02 per Capita	Absolute	Coal Production	Oil Production	Natural gas Production	Oil Reserves	Coal Reserves	Natural gas Reserves	Deforestation	Carbon Sink
1	Qatar	China	Australia	USA	Qatar	Venezuela	USA	Russia	Russia	Brazil
2	Kuwait	USA	Mongolia	Russia	Norway	Saudi Arabia	Russia	Iran	Brazil	Colombia
3	Luxemburg	India	Angola	China	Oman	Canada	Australia	Qatar	Canada	PNG
4	Australia	Russia	Kazakhstan	Brazil	Equatorial Guinea	Iran	China	USA	Indonesia	China
5	USA	Japan	South Africa	Mexico	Russia	Iraq	India	Saudi Arabia	DRC	Zambia
6	Canada	Germany	USA	Kuwait	Canada	Kuwait	Indonesia	Turkmenistan	Malaysia	Peru
7	Oman	South Korea	Poland	Nigeria	Kuwait	UAE	Germany	UAE	Madagascar	Mexico
8	Palau	Iran	Russia	Qatar	Netherlands	Russia	Ukraine	Venezuela	Ivory Coast	Bolivia
9	Estonia	Canada	Czech Republic	Norway	Australia	Libya	Poland	Nigeria	Australia	Tanzania
10	Kazakhstan	Saudi Arabia	China	Angola	USA	USA	Kazakhstan	China	Angola	USA
11	Russia	Brazil	Colombia	Kazakhstan	Malaysia	Nigeria	Turkey	Algeria	Myanmar	Ecuador
12	South Korea	Mexico	Indonesia	Colombia	Bolivia	Kazakhstan	South Africa	Iraq	Laos	Australia
13	Libya	Indonesia	Canada	India	Libya	China	Serbia	Indonesia	Paraguay	Canada
14	Czech Republic	South Africa	Montenegro	Indonesia	New Zealand	Qatar	New Zealand	Mozambique	Mozambique	Philippines
15	Germany	UK	New Zealand	Oman	Kazakhstan	Brazil	Brazil	Kazakhstan	Guinea	South Africa
16	Finland	Australia	Nigeria	UK	Venezuela	Algeria	Canada	Egypt	Mexico	Guyana
17	Belgium	Italy	Germany	Argentina	Argentina	Angola	Colombia	Canada	Finland	Cameroon
18	Poland	Turkey	Greece	Malaysia	Denmark	Ecuador	Pakistan	Australia	Nigeria	Zimbabwe
19	China	France	Bulgaria	Egypt	UK	Mexico	Mongolia	Uzbekistan	Peru	Panama
20	Ireland	Poland	India	Ecuador	Egypt	Azerbaijan	Vietnam	Kuwait	Argentina	Nepal

We looked at various climate data sources to get a clearer picture, but a challenge was getting recent data and comparable metrics for so many countries. As there are different ways to compare countries’ emissions, we looked at both absolute emissions and on a per capita basis. We did not look at historical emissions, or the carbon footprint of consumption, including imported goods. “Absolute emissions” are carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste. Over time, the absolute amount is what affects atmospheric concentrations of GHGs and the global carbon budget.  

The Top GHG Emitters

The top four GHG emitters, China (27.2%), the United States (14.6%), India (6.8%) and Russia (4.7%) contribute more than half of total global emissions (53.3%), while the bottom 100 countries only account for about 3.5 %. The US is the world’s top producer of oil and has the largest coal reserves, Canada has the third largest oil reserves and third largest deforestation rates. Australia is the top producer of coal, has the third largest coal reserves and Qatar is the top natural gas producer and has the largest C02 per capita. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves and Russia the largest natural gas reserves and largest deforestation rates, followed by Brazil. China has the world’s largest absolute emissions and is the third largest oil producer with the fourth largest coal reserves.

Deforestation, land use change and carbon sinks

Deforestation and land use change is one of the main contributors to climate change producing about 24% of GHGs. Deforestation comes in many forms: wildfire, agricultural land clearance, livestock ranching, and logging for timber etc.

Globally, forests act as carbon sinks and store large amounts of carbon sequestered from the atmosphere, but primary forests, rather than secondary forests (forests regrown after clear-felling of trees) are the best carbon sinks and must be protected against deforestation.

Australia’s annual emissions budget in 2018-19 was 532 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, however the bushfires, which have burnt through more than 5+ million hectares across the country, are estimated to have released two-thirds of this amount – or about 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere so far. This is a low estimate as the bushfires are still spreading. (Source: NASA’s Global Fire Emissions Database). Experts warn the forests in Australia may take more than 100 years to absorb what’s been released so far this season.

Before the fires in the Amazon, a study published in the journal Ecology showed that regrowth in the Amazon rainforest is happening slower than previously thought. Even after 60 years of regrowth secondary forests hold just 40% of the carbon held in primary forests left undisturbed by humans.

Avoiding deforestation and improving land and forest management can reduce emissions significantly, but contradictory subsidies, poor land management and vested corporate interests prevent this from happening. To consider which countries have the highest deforestation rates, the only available data for so many countries was for 2014. Recent devastating fires and deforestation in Australia, Amazon and Indonesia are not considered.

Top 10 – Multiple Issues

We then looked at which countries appeared in the ‘top 20’ for multiple issues (as above). Given many countries have multiple climate ‘offences’ that all pack a punch, ordering them in the above way is useful when looking at which issues to focus advocacy on for each country. (noting there is detailed data behind every country ranking).

Russia and Canada

Russia and Canada share the top spot for being ‘worst offenders’ for multiple issues. Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves and the eighth largest crude oil reserves, most of Russia’s production and reserves are found in the Western Siberia basin. Russia is also the biggest exporter in the world of natural gas, contributing more than 40 % of the overall world’s gas export. Plus. Russia has the largest area of forests in the world, with around 12 million km² of boreal forest, larger than the Amazon rainforest. It is estimated that 20,000 km² are deforested each year.

In Canada, about 60% of its industrial emissions come from the oil and gas sector and Canadian proven oil reserves are estimated at 171.0 billion barrels. Alberta is Canada’s largest oil and natural gas producer and is home to vast deposits of both resources. According to Canada’s Energy Future report, Canadian oil output will grow by nearly 50% to around seven million barrels per day by 2040, while gas increases by over 30%. This growth is for their export market, as energy use per person is expected to increase by less than 5% by 2040, while the population grows by 20%. Canada’s deforestation rates are high as their forests have been subject to large insect infestations and forest fires.

In Summary	Countries
High Emitters and Producers	Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, UAE, UK, USA and Venezuela
High Deforestation Countries	Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, DRC, Ivory Coast Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay and Russia
Need to Protect Their Carbon Sinks	Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, PNG, Tanzania, USA and Zambia
These Countries Need More Support on Vulnerability and Readiness	Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Central African Republic, DRC, Haiti, Madagascar, Mali, Sudan and Zimbabwe
Laggards in Climate Policy (this will change once countries update their NDCs).	Australia, Austria, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia, Ukraine and USA
Leaders in Climate Policy (this will change once countries update their NDCs).	Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland and UK

Rank	Most Vulnerable and Least Ready Countries ( Source: 6 & 7)
1	Somalia
2	Chad
3	Eritrea
4	Central African Republic
5	DRC
6	Sudan
7	Niger
8	Haiti (SIDS)
9	Afghanistan
10	Guinea-Bissau (SIDS)
11	Burkina Faso
12	Burundi
13	Liberia
14	Madagascar (SIDS)
15	Zimbabwe
16	Yemen
17	Mali
18	Congo
19	Myanmar
20	Ethiopia

The list above comes from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative – ND-Gain Country Index which uses a common set of indicators to measure countries vulnerability to climate change and their readiness. Most African countries are highly vulnerable to climate change and the least ready for its impacts. Asia is also very vulnerable to climate change and is home to a large majority of the global poor. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as sea-level rise and an increase in intensity of cyclones etc.

Sources

1. C02 Per Capita – Per capita is useful as individual countries vary vastly in size and population. Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.co2e.pc
2. Absolute Emissions: Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html
3. Oil reserves: Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country
4. Coal reserves: Source:  https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2019-coal.pdf
5. Natural gas reserves: Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_proven_reservesOil, coal and natural gas reserves.
6. Vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Source: https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/rankings/
7. Climate Readiness – measures a country’s ability to leverage investments and convert them to adaptation actions. Source: https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/rankings/
8. Deforestation (Gross loss tree cover) Global Forest Watch. Source: www. gfw2-data.s3.amazonaws.com/country-pages/country_stats/download/global.xlsx
9. Carbon Sink: Source: https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/A-Global-Baseline_RRI_Sept-2018.pdf
10. Leadership on Climate Change Policy Source: https://www.climate-change-performance-index.org/category-results-2019/climate-policy