The scale of the crisis
In 1750, humanity emitted almost no CO2. For most of history the line is flat.
The Industrial Revolution (~1850) lit the fuse. Coal-powered growth began to bend the curve upward.
After World War II, a global boom sent emissions climbing steeply.
From 2000, the rapid industrialisation of China and Asia pushed them higher still.
Today the world emits roughly 38 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, an all-time high. But this single number hides who is responsible.
Who emits per person?
This map shows CO2 per capita. A century ago, only the early industrialisers stood out.
By 1950, North America and Europe burned far more per person than anyone else.
By 1990, oil-rich Gulf states join the top of the scale.
Today the gap is staggering. Drag the slider or hover any country to explore.
The historical debt
Climate change is driven by CO2 built up over centuries. Each block is a country's share of all CO2 ever emitted.
The United States alone is responsible for about a quarter of cumulative emissions.
A handful of early industrialisers (the US, the EU, Russia, the UK) built most of the stock we live with today.
China looms large in annual emissions, yet its historical share is far smaller. Most other nations are mere slivers.
What drives a country's emissions?
Select any country to see which sources (coal, oil, gas, cement) built its emissions, and how carbon-intensive its economy is.
The USA was built first on coal, then increasingly on oil and gas.
China's rise is overwhelmingly coal-driven, the single biggest factor in its growth.
Norway is wealthy yet low-intensity: clean hydro power at home, even as it exports oil and gas. Different countries, different drivers. Explore your own.
Does wealth require pollution?
Each bubble is a country: wealth on the x-axis, CO2 per person on the y-axis, sized by population.
Compare Norway and Qatar: similar wealth, wildly different emissions. Wealth does not force a high carbon footprint.
Use the country dropdown to pick any nation and see exactly where it sits on the wealth-versus-emissions field.
Hover to read any country. The richest nations cluster high; the poorest sit near zero despite huge populations.
The 500-fold gap
Sorted by CO2 per person, the inequality is brutal: the top and bottom differ by a factor of several hundred.
At the top, Qatar emits ~35 t per person. At the bottom, countries like Chad emit under 0.1 t, yet are home to millions.
The countries least responsible for the crisis are often the most exposed to its consequences: droughts, floods, rising seas.
Bars are coloured by each country's estimated share of observed global warming. A handful of nations dominate; most contributed almost nothing.
So, who owes the atmosphere?
Responsibility for CO2 is not a single number. It depends on whether you count totals, per-capita, history, or wealth. Whichever lens you choose, the burden is profoundly unequal.
Data: Our World in Data: CO2 & GHG Emissions Built with D3.js & Scrollama