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KS3-4 Carbon Emissions Activity – What the numbers reveal
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Citizenship
Students analyse data in a table comparing carbon dioxide emissions from 21 countries and draw conclusions.
Objectives
 Students use mathematical tools to analyse data on CO2 emissions from different countries.
 Students gain a global awareness of different countries’ contributions to atmospheric CO2.
Preparation
 Students should be familiar with the concept of climate change and the role of CO2 in the process.
 Photocopy the carbon emissions table and question sheet for each student.
Time: 30 mins
Instructions
 Students use the CO2 emissions table to answer the question sheet. (20 mins)
 The analysis of the emissions table can form the basis of a discussion. What did you learn? Do countries emit equal
amounts of CO2? How do emissions differ between countries? What role does population play? Do all countries need
to reduce their carbon emissions? Do different countries need to adopt different strategies? (10 mins)
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Carbon Dioxide Emissions Table
This is a list of sovereign states by carbon dioxide emissions due to human activity. The data presented below
corresponds to emissions in 2011. The data consider only carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil
fuels, but not emissions from deforestation, and fossil fuel exporters, etc. Other powerful greenhouse gases are
not included in this data, including methane. Use this chart to answer the questions.
Country
- World
1
China
Annual CO2
emissions
Population
(in thousands
of metric tons)
28,431,741
Percentage of Per Capita
(metric ton)
global total
Reduction needed
to reach world
per capita
average
100.0 %
4.4
6,103,493 1,324,655,000
21.5 %
4.62
4.8 %
304,060,000
20.2 %
18.99
76.8 %
13.8 %
8.07
45.5 %
2
United
States
5,752,289
-
European
Union
3,914,359
3
Russia
1,564,669
141,950,000
5.5 %
10.92
59.7 %
4
India
1,510,351 1,139,964,932
5.3 %
1.31
-236 %
5
Japan
1,293,409
127,704,000
4.6 %
10.11
56.5 %
6
Germany
805,090
82,110,097
2.8 %
9.74
54.8 %
7
Iran
466,976
71,956,322
1.6 %
6.65
33.8 %
48,607,000
1.7 %
9.89
55.5 %
33,311,400
1.9 %
16.72
73.7 %
24,277,432
1.3 %
15.78
72.1 %
61,414,062
2.0 %
9.40
53.2 %
8
9
South
Korea
Canada
475,248
544,680
10
Saudi
Arabia
381,564
11
United
Kingdom
568,520
12
Brazil
352,524
191,971,506
1.2 %
1.86
-137 %
13
Mexico
436,150
106,350,434
1.6 %
4.14
-6.3 %
48,687,000
1.5 %
8.59
48.8 %
14
South
Africa
414,649
15
Indonesia
333,483
227,345,082
1.2 %
1.46
-201 %
16
Italy
474,148
59,832,179
1.7 %
8.06
45.4 %
17
Australia
372,013
21,431,800
1.3 %
18.12
75.7 %
18
France
383,148
62,277,432
1.4 %
6.24
29.5 %
19
Spain
352,235
45,555,716
1.2 %
8.03
45.2 %
6,006
80,713,434
<0.1 %
110
Ethiopia
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Carbon Dioxide Emissions Question Sheet
1. Examine the data above and determine the total percentage of carbon dioxide emissions produced by top 10
carbon dioxide emissions.
2. What does this reveal about carbon dioxide emissions worldwide?
3. Compare data for per capita emissions versus annual CO2 emissions.
4. Does the ranking change?
5. If so, what is the reason for the change?
6. What does this suggest for climate change reduction strategies?
7. What is the average per capita emission?
8. Why do you think India, Brazil and Indonesia have negative reductions needed to reach the world capita average?
9. Does this mean these three countries do not need to adopt strategies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions?
10. The earth's current capacity to absorb carbon is 0.62 tonnes per capita. What does this reveal about specific country
per capita emissions?
11. Ethiopia produces less than 0.1% of the annual CO2 emissions which is likely well below the earth’s current
capacity. Why do you think their emissions are so low?
12. Even though Ethiopia’s CO2 emissions are low, they are affected by climate change daily. Given that 85% of the
population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, how do you think they are affected by climate change?
13. Compare total carbon emissions of countries with total population. What conclusions do you draw from comparing
population with annual carbon dioxide emissions? Compare data for the United Kingdom and Ethiopia and describe
the differences.