A study of the world's power stations has shown the extent to which developed countries produce more carbon dioxide per head than emerging economies.
Australians were found to be the world's worst polluters per capita, producing five times as much carbon from generating power as China.
The US came second with eight tonnes of carbon per head - 16 times more than that produced by India.
BBC News website: 'Australians named worst emitters'
Anthony, if your comprehension levels were higher you would note that I was asking what Rudd would do. I was not attributing an action to him. Take a bath.
And how many hectares would a gigawatt solar/thermal system cover. And what is the largest working s/t system currently operating and where is it?
If we are in urgent need to stop emitting CO2 then we need proven low emitting technology and that says nuclear to me.
We do have lots of the stuff to fuel such plants.
Not a perfect solution but Flannery et al are always beefing on just how urgent is the need to do something before the dreaded tipping point gets us.
And who knows given a decade or so of nuclear we will then find that CO2 had very little to do with climate change and we can go back to buring cheap coal.
And remember we shocking polluters can turn off the whole nation so that we no longer emit any CO2 at all and not make an iota of difference to any climate change caused by CO2.
I don't don't nuclear doesn't operate with many emissions. Solar thermal also doesn't cause emissions, has no cost of waste disposal, no risk of ground water contaminatin, no risk of weapon proliferation, is renewable, and can provide baseload!
Sadly, Asutralia also has very little solar thermal
Anthony,
Didn't think there was much mystery about nuclear power generation adding very little to CO2 emissions - but happy to learn otherwise.
Lawrie, the US also has nuclear and they are top of the charts, whats your point?
Ian, when did Rudd say he would shut down smelters?
And Canada isn't there because they built Dams.
And, of course, there is that little matter of all that aluminum, the production of which involves vast amounts of electricity, and most of which is exported.
So what will smart Kevvie do? Shut the smelters and just export the raw materials without value adding, just to meet his blank cheque to the climate mafia?
What the chart indicates isn't that the U.S. emits too much CO2 but that the rest of the world is still trying to catch up. What's too much in a growing world, now or in the past?
Thanks Lawrie - your table makes more sense than per capita. Yes, France isn't there because of 80% nuclear. I guess the UK's diminishing nuclear power is also why the UK is below Australia.
TOP 10 EMITTERS
National power sector emissions (in tonnes of CO2):
US - 2,530 million
China - 2,430 million
Russia - 600 million
India - 529 million
Japan - 363 million
Germany - 323 million
Australia - 205 million
South Africa - 201 million
UK - 192 million
South Korea - 168 million
(Source: Carma/CGD
Any idea as to why France is NOT in here - could it be due to france getting some 80% of its power from NUCLEAR plants? You know the plants which PM Kevi is NOT going to allow. And which the freaking left has prevented in Australia.
"Australians were found to be the world's worst polluters per capita, producing five times as much carbon from generating power as China."
OK so let us all live like the Chinese! Sheesh!