Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions from the Middle East

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What countries constitute the Middle East?

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The Middle East, as represented here, is 15 nations and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The region may contribute a large fraction of the world's oil but through their own energy consumption produce only 6.1% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and cement. The Middle East, due to the CO₂ emitted during the Kuwaiti oil field fires, exhibited a dramatic singularity of CO₂ emissions for 1991. The 1991 Kuwaiti oil field fires resulted in 130 million metric tons of carbon being emitted to the atmosphere, more than the 2006 total fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions of the 9th largest national emitter, South Korea. The three major fuel consumers discharge half of the region's fossil-fuel CO₂: Iran, 127.4 million metric tons of carbon in 2006; Saudi Arabia, 104.1 million metric tons of carbon; and Turkey, 73.5 million metric tons of carbon. Gas flaring has been a major source of regional emissions, and in a few years during the early 1970s, before infrastructure was available for gas use and reinjection, flaring accounted for almost half of the total fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions. Growth has been nearly continuous since 1950, although it started from a very low base. Per capita emissions underwent rapid growth until 1973, changed little during the late 1970s and 1980s, and have grown during the 1990s to exceed the global average. Based on our methodology, four Middle Eastern countries have the highest national per capita CO₂ emission rates in the world for 2006 - Qatar (13.46 metric tons of carbon per person), Kuwait (9.35), United Arab Emirates (9.00), and Bahrain (7.82).