Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• This resource is an interactive map, graph, and table that show annual per capita greenhouse gas emissions for countries throughout the world, starting from 1990.
• Greenhouse gas emissions – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and F-gases – are summed up and measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.

Positives

• The interactive provides three different ways for students to explore the data (chart, map, table).
• Students can customize the datasets to view different countries, continents, and time periods.

Additional Prerequisites

• Learners need to be familiar with the concept of gas emission and the economic concept of per capita.
• By clicking the play button in the bottom left corner, students can view an animated version of the chart, map, or table that show change over time.
• The dataset and images can be downloaded.

Differentiation

• This resource can be used as a practical application of the uses of line graphs learned in Mathematics.
• Geography or social studies classes can use the map to look for patterns in gas emissions and determine similar characteristics between high-emitting and low-emitting countries.
• This resource can be used to open conversations about climate justice by exploring which countries are the largest per capita emitters and what responsibility these countries should take in solving the climate crisis.

This resource underscores per capita CO₂ emissions aggregated from selected countries. Ideally, Global warming potentials calculated within a period of 100 years were taken into account to get the sum of CO₂ equivalent expressed in tonnes. This resource is recommended for teaching.