The attendees at the Glasgow climate conference have a huge problem: reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that has been accumulating since the Industrial Revolution of the mid 18th century. Fossil fuel companies knew by the mid 1970's that global combustion of their fuels would have an adverse impact on global climate. Now countries that have benefited from that unrestricted power source are asking developing countries to forego that same source to help reduce emissions. It is a Gordian knot of economics, social equity and technology. The prospects of a global solution are slim: India pledged to be "net zero" by 2070, twenty years later than the announced COP 26 goal. As the future king of England pointed out, the Glasgow conference may be the last, best chance to save the Earth.
China currently emits the most green house gases, but because the USA industrialized earlier, this chart shows it with the biggest share of global carbon dioxide emitted since 175, equivalent to Europe and Russia combined. Nevertheless, the US leads the world in the amount of emissions per capita by a wide margin, reflecting its energy intensive culture:
If emissions are measured in terms of fuel type, coal is clearly the largest source of emissions followed by oil and gas. Clearly, a significant contribution to reducing emissions can be made if the subsidies provided the fossil fuel industry by developed nations are eliminated and switched to alternative means of energy production.
