Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions from Africa

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What countries constitute Africa?

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Africa's fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions are low in both absolute and per capita terms. Total emissions for Africa have increased 11.2-fold since 1950 reaching 291 million metric tons of carbon in 2006, still less than the emissions for some single nations including Mainland China, the U.S., Russia, India, and Japan. Although per capita emissions in 2006, 0.30 metric tons of carbon, were three times those in 1950, they were still only 5.9% of the comparable value for North America. Emissions from all fuel sources have grown in the African region over time with liquid and solid fuels now each accounting for approximately 37% and gas fuels accounting for 16.3% of the regional total. A small number of nations are largely responsible for the African emissions from fossil fuels and cement production; South Africa accounts for 39% of the continental total, and another 47% of the CO₂ comes from Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Libya and Morocco combined. These are the only six countries on the continent with annual CO₂ emissions in excess of 10 million metric tons of carbon. Only four African countries have per capita CO₂ emissions higher than the global average (1.25 metric ton of carbon per year): Seychelles (2.39), Equatorial Guinea (2.39), South Africa (2.39), and Libya (2.26). Based on 2006 per capita emission rates, 29 of the 55 African nations for which data are available have per capita emission rates less than 0.1 metric ton of carbon per person per year.