Carbon footprints vary greatly depending on where someone lives, with industrialized nations like Canada having larger footprints than developing countries like Malawi. Average footprints by country are more revealing than the global average. North Americans have the highest average footprint at 20 tons per year, while Ethiopians have the lowest at 0.1 tons per year. Culture strongly influences footprints, with high consumption leading to high footprints and poverty leading to low footprints. Vulnerable nations to climate change often have low footprints.
Globally, the average carbon footprint is four tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year. However, these data are a bit misleading, because the size of someone’s carbon footprint varies considerably, depending on where they live. People in industrialized nations like Canada produce much larger carbon footprints than people in developing countries in places like Malawi. Analyzes of the average carbon footprint by country tend to be more revealing than the global average.
The information in this article comes from the first decade of the 21st century. Most nations exhibited a trend of increasing carbon emissions at this time, despite attempts to reduce carbon emissions in the interest of environmental protection. It is important to note that very few nations had declining average carbon footprints and growth rates were quite variable, with some countries having rapidly expanding carbon footprints compared to others.
Carbon footprints are based on the amount of greenhouse gases generated to support someone’s lifestyle over the course of a year. They are measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, with all greenhouse gases fitted along a rubric that uses carbon dioxide as a basis. Some imprints look at primary and secondary sources, separating the two. For example, when someone drives a car, it generates a primary source of carbon dioxide. When someone drinks bottled water, it generates a secondary source; the emissions are not in the bottle itself, but in the manufacturing and transportation of the bottle.
North Americans have the highest average carbon footprint, around 20 tons per year. A study by MIT students showed that members of the homeless population in the United States have a carbon footprint of approximately eight and a half tons per year. In contrast, in Ethiopia, the average carbon footprint is 01 tonnes per year. Some other examples include Russia, 10 tons per year, Egypt, at two and a half tons well below the global average, and France, slightly above the global average at six tons per year. Residents of China hover close to the global average with a carbon footprint of 3.8 tons per year.
The researchers pointed out that the average carbon footprint is strongly influenced by the culture in which one lives. In regions where consumption is ubiquitous and widespread, footprints are high, even though individuals may live below the national average footprint. Conversely, in countries where poverty is high and people have no purchasing power, the footprint remains low. Interestingly, some of the nations most vulnerable to changing climate conditions, which many people believe may be caused in part by carbon emissions, have some of the lowest carbon footprints.
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