Countries' contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all

The NewClimate Institute analyzed how different calculation methods for historical greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions affect the relative contributions of countries to cumulative global emissions, finding that results vary significantly based on the parameters used.

• The relative contribution of developed countries to cumulative global emissions varies from as high as 80% (when excluding recent emissions, non-CO2 GHGs, and land-use change and forestry CO2) to approximately 48% (when including those factors and discounting historical emissions for technological progress).
• Different accounting choices significantly alter the relative contributions of various country groups: excluding non-CO2 GHGs and land-use change and forestry CO2 changes contributions by factors of 0.15 to 1.5; excluding 2000–2010 emissions reduces contributions for most emerging economies by up to a factor of 0.8; and deducting 'basic needs' emissions reduces contributions for countries with low per capita emissions by a factor of 0.3–0.5.
• Discounting historical emissions for technological progress reduces the relative contributions of some developed countries (factor of 0.8) while increasing those of some developing countries (factor of 1.2–1.5). Additionally, including projected emissions up to 2020 increases the relative contributions of emerging economies by a factor of 1.2, or 1.5 if pre-2020 emissions are discounted for technological progress.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2013). Countries' contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change-effect-of-accounting-for-all

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Countries' contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all. 2013. https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change-effect-of-accounting-for-all.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Countries' contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all |date=1 September 2013 |url=https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change-effect-of-accounting-for-all |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2013countries, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Countries' contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change-effect-of-accounting-for-all}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }