Abstract: Using the World Resources Institute (WRI) database on greenhouse gas emissions and related data, this report examines two issues. The first issue is the separate treatment of developed and developing nations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. This distinction has been a pivotal issue affecting U.S. climate change policy. The second issue is the continuing difficulty of the current approach designed to address climate change through limiting greenhouse gas emissions to a specified percentage of baseline emissions (typically 1990). The data permit examination of alternative approaches, such as focusing on per capita emissions or the greenhouse gas emission intensity (measured as emissions per unit of economic activity). Key findings include:

• A few countries account for most greenhouse gas emissions: in 2000, the United States led by emitting 20% of the world total, followed by China with 15%; no other country reached 6%; the top nine emitters accounted for 60% of the 185 nations’ emissions.
• Land-use effects (e.g., deforestation) on emissions are negligible for most nations, but they cause emissions to rise sharply for certain developing nations, for example, Brazil and Indonesia.
• While oil- and gas-producing Gulf States have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions, in general developed nations rank high in per capita emissions (in 2000, Australia, the United States, and Canada ranked 5, 7, and 9, respectively, in the world), while developing nations tend to rank low (China, India, and Indonesia ranked 99, 146, and 123, respectively).
• The greenhouse intensity of the economy — the metric by which the Bush Administration is addressing climate change — varies substantially among developed countries (the Ukraine emits 651 tons/million international $GDP, while France emits 94 tons/million $GDP, with the United States at 196 tons/million $GDP; developing nations show less variance unless land use is taken into account.
• The time frame adopted for defining the climate change issue and for taking actions to address greenhouse gas emissions has differential impacts on individual nations, as a result of individual resource endowments (e.g., coal versus natural gas and hydropower) and stage of economic development (e.g., conversion of forest land to agriculture occurring before or after the baseline).

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Topics: Climate Change, International, Energy