The UK is responsible for nearly twice as much global warming

The UK is responsible for nearly twice as much global warming as previously thought, due to its colonial history, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

History matters because the cumulative amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted since the start of the industrial revolution is closely tied to the record temperatures expected in 2023.

Previous analysis had put the UK’s share of cumulative historical emissions at 3.0% of the global total, including CO2 from fossil fuels, cement, land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF).

This made the UK the eighth largest contributor to current warming, behind the US (1), China (2), Russia (3), Brazil (4), Germany (5), Indonesia (6) and its former colony India (7).

According to Carbon Brief’s new analysis, however, the UK is responsible for nearly twice as much warming as previously thought – some 5.1% of the global total – due to its colonial history.

This bumps the UK up to fourth place in terms of its historical responsibility for climate change, still behind the US, China and Russia – but now ahead of India, Brazil and Germany.

Moreover, the UK’s population are the second-highest emitters on a per-capita basis, when accounting for emissions under colonial rule.

FROM: https://www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-colonial-rule-nearly-doubles-uks-historical-contribution-to-climate-change/

from Operation Noah

August 2022

Dear Friends,

The environmentalist Bill McKibben has said that when it comes to the climate crisis, winning slowly is losing. Never has that been clearer than this summer. We’ve seen record heatwaves in Europe, an area one-fifth the size of Belgium burned by wildfires and incredible price increases in fossil gas that could leave nearly two-thirds of the UK in fuel poverty. Most of this is down to our failure to transition quickly to renewable energy and stand up to the fossil fuel industry.

With predictions that energy prices are set to nearly triple by early next year, Dr Simon Evans of Carbon Brief has written a thorough explanation of what’s happening. In summary, an 11-fold increase in UK wholesale gas prices since 2019 is behind 96% of the increase in household energy bills. And that increase is being felt especially acutely in the UK given that 85% of UK households use gas boilers, with 40% of our electricity generated in gas-fired power stations.

The good news is UK renewable energy is now nine times cheaper than gas, can be deployed at scale and will eventually displace fossil fuels as our primary way of generating energy. The bad news is that people need help with their energy bills now, as do churches and other places of worship. This autumn, let us use these interlocking crises – the cost of living crisis, the energy crisis and the climate crisis – to work for a more just world, one in which the Church plays a leading role in advocating for cheap, clean energy that protects our planet and each other.

The Operation Noah Team