CO2 emissions from saudi Arabia, other Gulf oil exporters

As an addendum to the post I just put up about Al-Hayat’s writings on climate change and CO2 emissions, here is Nationmaster’s ranking of the world’s countries by per-head CO2 emissions.
It only goes through 2003, though I think the date should be available through 2005 by now. Still, look where Saudi Arabia is: # 19, with CO2 emissions in 2003 of 13.0 metric tons per head.
The US was # 10 there, at 19.8 metric tons/head– but definitely ways ahead of any other major industrialized country.
Look at the fact that other Persian Gulf oil-producing nations occupied four out of the top five slots there. The world-average figure for per-head emissions in 2005 was 4.2 metric tons/head. If the world’s biosphere is to be saved/stabilized, we all need to work extremely hard and creatively to bring the world average down to around 1 metric ton/head.

5 thoughts on “CO2 emissions from saudi Arabia, other Gulf oil exporters”

  2. ‘If we take the world’s total biocapacity measured in global hectares (gha) (1.8 gha per person) and subtract from it all that is required to support our dietary needs (0.8 gha) and built-up land use, we are left with 1.0 g/ha per person available for carbon sequestration. Countries living within these means can be deemed to have an acceptable carbon footprint satisfying “one-planet living”.
    Clearly, then, the first thing to note about this table is that Europe as a whole requires very significantly more than its equitable fair share of biocapacity to sustain current levels of consumption. Indeed, by this standard, only Latvia is living within its global fair share.’
    http://ethicalandgreen.com/2007/10/20/countries-and-their-co2-emissions/
    Feer call!

  3. Lets not let Australia and Canada (my country) off the hook either. The three, along with major oil producing nation Norway, have the distinction of being the only fully modern major economies in the top 20 emitters per capita list.[1] By comparison we have Germany (36), UK (37), and France (66th due to its heavy use of nuclear power).
    All three are in the top 10 of CO2 emissions per capita; unsurprisingly all are top energy consumers per capita. Canada, according to recent data, appears to be the worst major developed nation measured on energy utilization per capita; while this reputation is deserved (U.S. and Australia are not far behind) we should also recognize that if we were to measure the CO2 at final product consumption points we would then realize that the U.S. with its massive trade deficit (with China but also with Canada and other major energy producers) is effectively outsourcing some major component of its CO2 emissions to other countries.
    Every plastic toy, every tennis shoe, every barrel of oil produced on foreign shores but consumed in the U.S. is X amount of CO2 which should really be transferred from the foreign CO2 balance sheet to the consuming nation, if we are to get a true picture of who is or should be most responsible for acting now.
    Unsurprisingly, given our most recent Prime Minister’s home riding is in Canada’s oil patch HQ, Canada added their voice to G.W. Bush’s call at the last APEC meeting for a competing, non-binding, “aspirational”, approach to doing very little.
    Perhaps also unsurprising, public opinion in my country leans heavily towards doing something, even if it entails some personal cost; this has been true for some time but successive governments have failed to act. People are often ahead of politicians.
    [1] U.S. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/top2004.cap

  4. There is missing point about oil consumptions with its CO2 Emissions in Saudi and gulf countries.
    Let say how many US warships and Military vehicles are in that area?
    Any one has any idea about the numbers?
    So those military forces and materials all consuming oil thus emitting CO2 which regarded to the region for some reason or another from those Oil refineries to those facilities established in the region firstly to support US bases in the region to serve them and also the native nations.
    So the point is talking about Saudi and Gulf countries CO2 emissions is mostly inaccurately reported as CO2 emissions part of it due to the west needs in the region more than reflection of the demands by native people and needs.

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