Australia tops global per capita carbon emissions, says report

Australia has surpassed the US as the world’s biggest per capita producer of carbon emissions, according to a report by a British risk consultancy.

Analyst Maplecroft estimates that Australian CO2 output per head of population now stands at 20.5 tons annually, putting it ahead of the 19.7 tons emitted by the average American.

By comparison, China – which emits more carbon overall than any nation – has a per capita average of about 4.5 tons. In India, where greenhouse gases are expected to double by 2031, emissions are just 1.1 tons per person.

Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia followed Australia and the US in Maplecroft's top five CO2 Energy Emissions Index rankings of 185 countries, which was released last week.

The findings are likely to help bolster the stance of China and India – which have been under pressure to set emissions targets – at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Both countries have consistently argued that they should not be required to set binding targets in the short to medium term as their per capita emissions are so much lower than those of industrialised nations.

Australia, meanwhile, could come under greater scrutiny at the forthcoming talks, particularly given the parliament's inability last month to enact a carbon trading bill, which was rejected by the Sentate. It later passed into law a less contentious 20 per cent renewables target.

In related news, Australia was also ranked last among industrialised nations in its readiness to combat climate change, according to a separate study issued today.

An index compiled by London-based consultancy Vivid Economics ranked the nation fifteenth among G20 nations for its capacity to compete and prosper in a low-carbon world.

France, Japan and the UK took the respective top three spots in the 19-country index, with the US coming tenth.

Australia even fared badly compared to developing nations, such as China (sixth) and Mexico (eleventh), and was only ranked above South Africa, India, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, which rounded out the list.

The report, sponsored by environmental lobby groups The Climate Institute and Third Generation Environmentalism, attributed China's relatively lofty ranking to "high rates of reforestation and low transport sector energy consumption", although the study notes that it has had "rapid recent emissions growth and carbon-intensive electricity supply".

Meanwhile, Australia's high car ownership rates and heavy exports of fossil fuels, such as coal, had contributed to the country's low ranking, said the consultancy.