![Pollution from cement factories along the Yangtze River, in China. China emitted more CO2 between 2013 and 2020 than the UK did in 220 years](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/environment/2022/11/07/TELEMMGLPICT000283920967_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
China pumps out more pollution in eight years than UK since Industrial Revolution
CO2 emissions of 80bn tonnes from 2013 to 2020 is higher than Britain’s 78bn over 220 years
![Pollution from cement factories along the Yangtze River, in China. China emitted more CO2 between 2013 and 2020 than the UK did in 220 years](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/environment/2022/11/07/TELEMMGLPICT000283920967_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
China has emitted more carbon dioxide over the past eight years than the UK has since the start of the Industrial Revolution, figures have shown.
Between 1750 and 2020, the UK emitted 78 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, compared with China’s emissions of 80 billion tonnes since 2013.
The UK has indicated it is open to paying “climate change reparations” to climate vulnerable countries and will discuss the issue at the ongoing Cop27 summit.
However, China is unlikely to be party to an arrangement because it still considers itself a developing country.
This is despite China having emitted 14 per cent of all emissions throughout history, surpassed only by the United States, which has emitted 25 per cent of all emissions.
The UK, in comparison, has emitted just 4.6 per cent of all historic emissions - the fifth highest in the world. Around 80 per cent of these occurred before 1990.
Today, the UK emits less than one per cent of all global emissions each year and, once adjusting for population, ranks 68th in global per capita emissions.
China, on the other hand, is responsible for 30 per cent of all global emissions each year, ranking 42nd in per capita emissions.
And whilst China continues to record increases in its global emissions, the United Kingdom has led other developed nations in reducing the pollutant.
Figures from the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project showed that the UK has seen the fastest reduction in CO2 emissions over the past 30 years amongst other industrialised nations.
The UK’s annual emissions account for just over half - 54.8 per cent - of what they did in 1990.
Meanwhile, Germany has decreased its emissions by around 40 per cent and France by 30 per cent.
China has seen its emissions increase fourfold over the same period, emitting 10.7 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2020 - compared with the UK’s 329 million.
Amongst other G20 countries, the UK is one of just seven countries to have decreased emissions compared with 1990s levels. Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India and China have at least doubled theirs in the same period.
None of these countries were previously identified as “Annex I”, or post-industrial nations, which in the past has made them susceptible to propping up pledges on climate finance to the developing world.
Deficit in climate emissions
Some climate-vulnerable countries have highlighted that where industrialised countries in western Europe have seen major reductions in recent years, they still make up a historic deficit in climate-affecting emissions.
The European Union, UK and US, for example, have collectively emitted over half of global emissions throughout history.
Meanwhile, the V20 countries, a group of countries extremely vulnerable to climate change, have collectively emitted fewer than 0.7 per cent of carbon dioxide - despite representing some 10 per cent of the global population.
These countries estimate a loss of $525 billion in the past 20 years due to climate change, a figure that could double by 2050.
Whilst many Western countries have recorded a decline in emissions in recent years as part of a broader move away from industrialisation, emissions are still focused in a handful of countries.
Collectively, just three countries - China (30 per cent), the US (13 per cent) and India (seven per cent) - accounted for over half of all emissions in 2020, whilst 118 of 224 areas accounted for less than one per cent.