There are 195 countries in the world responsible for 31 percent GHG emissions.

The single country with the most historic GHG emissions in the USA. One single country, the USA, is responsible for 18 percent of all the historic GHG emissions. Those gases are still in the troposphere.

Cumulative emissions (click here) describe a country’s total historic emissions. They are a commonly used concept for understanding responsibility for climate change, since they are a proxy for the amount of current warming caused by specific countries. This measurement can vary significantly depending on the chosen start date and the inclusion of gases and sectors.

The graph below shows cumulative emissions including Land-Use Change and Forestry (LUCF) for the top 10 emitters during the period 1990 to 2011, when complete data are available. Almost half of emissions come from just four countries: the United States, China, European Union and Russian Federation.