The UK represented just 0.81% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and industry in 2024. That’s a small proportion of the global total, so perhaps it’s easy to suggest that the responsibility to cut emissions should instead lie with bigger emitters like China, the US and India.

But with many countries contributing the same seemingly small proportion of global CO₂ concentrations, this whataboutism ignores the fundamental responsibility we all share. This 1% statistic hides the true picture of UK emissions and ignores the fact that the climate crisis is a global crisis.

The UK remains one of the biggest global emitters of CO₂, as 18th in the overall list of almost 200 countries worldwide. But look beyond the confines of our borders to include the emissions associated with our imported goods and services, and UK emissions nearly double, from around 0.8% to around 1.4%.

If you include historic emissions, the UK climbs even higher. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, the UK kickstarted the burning of coal, oil and gas to power a growing economy, emitting enormous quantities of CO₂ in that 250-year process. So it is no great surprise that the UK is the fifth biggest........

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