Brits Surpass 7 African Countries' Annual Carbon Emissions In Just Two Weeks: Report

Nations contribute differently to global carbon emissions. But, how different can the contributions really be? A new study highlights how an average person in Britain can emit significantly more carbon dioxide than someone from one of seven African nations.

Carbon Emissions

On Sunday, Jan. 5, an Oxfam report revealed that an average person in the U.K. would only need five days to equal the annual carbon emissions of an average person in Rwanda. Further, they found that it only takes an average British person 12 days to emit more carbon dioxide than the annual carbon emissions of a citizen in six other African countries, namely Malawi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Uganda.

Specifically, the results revealed that compared to African countries such as Rwanda with annual carbon emissions of 0.09 tons per head of population, Burkina Faso with 0.25, and Malawi with 0.19, the average British person emits 8.3 tons of carbon dioxide. The global average is 4.7 tons.

The results show how an average British person can emit more carbon dioxide in a week or two than an average person in an African nation does for an entire year. The agency came to its conclusions based on per capita emissions data from the Global Carbon Atlas. For the study, they used data from 2017, which is the last year with complete data.

Willingness To Change

On the same day, YouGov.com poll results also came out, revealing that 61 percent of the people in Britain want the government to take more action in response to the climate emergency. In fact, many also presented the willingness to make lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprints.

For instance, 79 percent said that they were willing to recycle more, while 38 percent said they were likely to change their diets to consume less meat and 68 percent said they were likely to use more energy-efficient products. Nearly half of respondents also noted that they would buy ethically made or even second-hand products and limit their air travel.

It is worth noting that although the current study highlighted the United Kingdom’s carbon emissions, they are not the only ones with a large room for improvement as the United States, China, India, Russia, Japan, and Germany remain to be top carbon dioxide contributors. In the United States, 2015 data revealed Wyoming to be the highest carbon dioxide emitter, while New York was the lowest.