Climate Questions: Who are the biggest emitters?

Carbon dioxide is light and invisible, but the amount put in the air by the world's nations through the burning of coal, oil and gas and the making of cement adds up to massive numbers. Since 1959, the world has spewed 1.55 trillion tons (1.41 trillion metric tons) of carbon dioxide, according to Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who track emissions and publish in peer review scientific journals. In 2020, the last year for full national data, China spewed more than 11.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide (more than 10.6 billion metric tons), which is 30.6% of the globe's carbon dioxide emissions and more than twice as much carbon pollution as the United States which was the next highest emitter at 13.5%, scientists calculated. The European Union, when lumped together, comes in third at 7.5% followed by India's 7%. There are a few important caveats to understanding who is responsible for global emissions. The first is the amount of carbon emitted per person. "The developing countries, India and China, even though they're emitting a lot, they have very big population," said John Miller, meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "So on a per capita basis, their emissions aren't quite as large as they would seem." Scientists say historic emissions also must be taken into consideration