Either way you look at it, Canada is one of the worst emitters on the planet.

A new ranking of the planet’s biggest polluters has Canada in the top 10 for total emissions, which, according to climate advocates, gives the country even greater responsibility to align itself with a climate-safe future.

the analysis conducted by UK-based Carbon Brief studies cumulative emissions since 1850 to identify which countries have historically contributed the most. The economic superpowers of the last half century were the most responsible, with the United States firmly in first place with 20.3% of the world total, followed by China with 11.4% and Russia with 6.9%.

Canada, responsible for 2.6% of the world’s total carbon emissions, ranked 10th, behind Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and Japan, which ranged between 4.5% and 2.7 %.

“What’s remarkable is how small Canada’s population is compared to all the other top 10 countries,” said Cam Fenton of Climate Advocacy Group 350.

The population of Canada is approximately 38 million. Of the 10 worst polluters, the closest in population is the United Kingdom, with approximately 67 million people. Carbon Brief’s analysis noted that on a per capita basis, depending on how you count it, Canada is either the worst or the second worst polluter in the world. (The usual standard of dividing cumulative emissions by current population leaves Canada worst, while emissions per capita added over time rank Canada second worst, behind New Zealand.)

Specifically, from 1850 to 2021, Canada is responsible for 65.5 billion tons of carbon, with 34.2 billion tons related to fossil fuel use and 31.3 billion tons related to land use and deforestation.

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Fenton said that the fact that the country is one of the top 10 carbon emitters with so few people shows that Canada’s carbon footprint is closely related to the extraction and refining of fossil fuels for export, rather than our needs. national energy companies.

“This is one of the challenges facing our government … and I think it sheds light on the need for a just transition because many of the reasons we are up there is that we are digging and providing fossil fuels to the world.” Fenton said.

That huge contribution to climate change “has undermined much of Canada’s mythology … being a good actor on the world stage,” he said.

“So I think there is certainly something here around national identity, who we are and the responsibility we have to take on.”

In the last term of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his government smug Canada was a major oil producer, but to date, it has taken no action to curb fossil fuel production, driving Canada’s global carbon emissions.

Fenton says Ottawa has used the fact that Canada is a major oil producer to slow the pace of the transition when the opposite conclusion should be drawn.

“We have a historic responsibility to act faster because so much of our wealth and place in the world depends on Canada burning too much carbon,” he said.

He said this classification should force the government and Canadians to stop thinking that the transition from fossil fuels should be slow because Canada is cold and historically has extracted a lot.

“What I think should change (a) is: ‘Actually, we are a small country with a disproportionately high responsibility for causing the climate crisis, with a national identity based on being a good actor in the world,'” he said. .

“Those things together mean that we really should be doing a lot more than we are and moving a lot faster so we can do our part.”

Environment Canada did not return a request for comment before the deadline.

John Woodside / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer