Lies, damned lies and emissions per capita

 

When you hear a politician talk about emissions per capita, you should immediately be on your guard - it is most likely an attempt to deflect and deceive!

This measure can reveal useful insights - for example, about the relative emissions of people in different countries.  In 2016 Australia’s emissions per capita was 17.10 tons [1].  For comparison:

• United States: 15.52 tons

• China: 7.38 tons

• Global average: 4.79 tons

• Bangladesh (one of the most climate vulnerable nations): 0.47 tons

So, yes, this can give us a measure of our relative responsibility to slash our emissions.  The more so for Australia when you consider that our emissions per capita does NOT include emissions from burning the vast quantities of coal, oil and gas that we export.

But when you hear it used by politicians from the “go-slow” brigade, when you hear it used to defend indefensibly inadequate records and policies, then you know you are being deliberately misled.

In recent correspondence with this writer’s federal MP, this measure was deployed to defend Australia’s manifestly inadequate target of reducing emissions from 2005 levels by 26%.  This writer was told that this would reduce our emissions per capita by half.

And so it might - but who cares?  Physics does not care how many people it took to burn the stuff!  Not a jot!  It is not relevant!

In another instance, this writer saw emissions per capita used in a hugely flawed defence of inaction by a councillor from a neighbouring council [2].  There is so much that is wrong with that article that debunking it fully is well beyond the scope of this piece.

But the claimed meagre reduction in our emissions per capita over 28 years serves only to disguise and conceal our inexorably rising emissions over the same period.

Whether our total emissions are produced by 100 people or 100 million makes NO difference - zilch, nada, zero - to the global heating effect of the emissions.  We still fry - the world still fries!

Reference to emissions per capita is most usually used by politicians to deceive and deflect.  But when we recognise it for what it is, then it can tell us a great deal about the candidate making the claim and their suitability for public office in times of climate crisis.

References:

[1] https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-per-capita/

[2] https://councillorzamprogno.info/2019/03/15/the-childrens-crusade-on-climate-change/

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