Who is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and climate change?
• Once emitted, GHGs can remain in the atmosphere for many years, from approximately 10 years to thousands of years, depending on the gas. This means that emissions from a long time ago are still in the atmosphere and still affecting the Earth’s climate system. Countries in the developed world have been emitting substantial quantities of GHGs since the start of the industrial revolution in the mid-18th Century. The United States, for example, is responsible for approximately 25 percent of the world’s emissions of GHGs to date. However, although industrialization in other parts of the world has been delayed, emissions of GHGs from developing countries are rapidly catching up with those of the developed world, and some estimates indicate that emissions from developing countries, particularly those from China and India, will exceed those of the United States and Europe in coming decades. Determining responsibility for climate change necessitates consideration of these complex patterns of
