‘OSLO (Reuters) – The United States is by far the biggest greenhouse gas emitter ahead of China if consumers in rich nations are given responsibility for energy used to make imported goods, a researcher said on Wednesday.’

via U.S. top greenhouse gas emitter, counting imports | Green Business | Reuters.

This analysis challenges China’s recently acquired position as the world’s greatest greenhouse gas emitter by shifting the focus from production to consumption. The article goes on to quote these statistics:

‘In the ranking of 73 nations, Americans have the biggest annual “carbon footprint” at the equivalent of 29 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita, ahead of Australians on 21 tonnes and Canadians on 20 tonnes.

Each Chinese citizen in the survey, based on 2001 data, accounts for just 3.1 tonnes. Adjusted for China’s much bigger population, U.S. emissions were 7.9 billion tonnes and China’s 3.9 billion.’