HERE ARE SOME FACTS:
Since 1990, UK’s CO2 emissions have steadily fallen by 49% between the 1990 baseline and 2020. See graph below.
In the top 20 nations listed below, UK is showing the best performance in reducing CO2 emissions with a drop of 6.38% compared to India up 4.71%.
Although much less abundant than water vapour, nitrogen and oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, carbon dioxide is an important constituent of our planet’s air. It is a greenhouse gas that works to trap heat close to Earth. It helps Earth hold the energy it receives from the Sun, so it doesn’t all escape back into space. If it weren’t for carbon dioxide, Earth’s ocean would be frozen solid.
It is one of the most important gases on the earth because plants use it to produce carbohydrates in a process called photosynthesis. CO2 is a fertiliser too, the increase from historically low levels in the atmosphere has greened the earth - crop yields have increased dramatically since the 1960s and continue to do so. NASA’s satellites have shown the world is getting greener..
Here is where the UK lies in the World’s league of CO2 emitters. The black blocks is data for 2010 and the blue is for 2020. UK CO2 emissions have fallen 32%. China’s CO2 output has increased by 24% . Data source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/270499/co2-emissions-in-selected-countries/
"On a production basis we had previously found that the richest (high and upper-middle income) countries in the world accounted for half of the population, but 86% of emissions. On a consumption basis we find the same result, but resulting from the fact that upper-middle income countries primarily export emissions to high income countries. High income countries’ collective emissions increase from 39 to 46 percent when adjusted for trade (with only 16% of the population); upper-middle income countries’ emissions decrease by the same amount (7 %age points) from 48 to 41%. Overall, this balances out in the top half of the world population: upper-middle income countries are net exporters whilst high income net importers." Table and quote sourced from https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions
