Shocking analysis by country of Climate Debt of greenhouse gas polluters
29 September 2013, 02:20, by Dr Gideon Polya
Correction: the estimates of Historical Carbon Debt derived from an assertion that "In the period 1751 to 1900, about 12 gigatonnes of carbon were released as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels, whereas from 1901 to 2008 the figure was about 334 gigatonnes" in the detailed Wikipedia article quoted in the article.
However 1 tonne Carbon is equivalent to 3.67 tonnes CO2 and accordingly a clearer version of that sentence would read "In the period 1751 to 1900, about 12 gigatonnes of carbon (12 x 3.67 = 44 gigatonnes CO2) were released as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels, whereas from 1901 to 2008 the figure was about 334 gigatonnes carbon (334 x 3.67 = 1,226 gigatonne CO2)".
Correction: the estimates of Historical Carbon Debt derived from an assertion that "In the period 1751 to 1900, about 12 gigatonnes of carbon were released as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels, whereas from 1901 to 2008 the figure was about 334 gigatonnes" in the detailed Wikipedia article quoted in the article.
However 1 tonne Carbon is equivalent to 3.67 tonnes CO2 and accordingly a clearer version of that sentence would read "In the period 1751 to 1900, about 12 gigatonnes of carbon (12 x 3.67 = 44 gigatonnes CO2) were released as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels, whereas from 1901 to 2008 the figure was about 334 gigatonnes carbon (334 x 3.67 = 1,226 gigatonne CO2)".
For further confirmation of this see Figure SPM.10 "Cumulative total anthropogenic CO2 emissions from 1870" and axes Gt CO2 and Gt C of the latest IPCC Report "Summary for policy makers": http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/uploads/WGIAR5-SPM_Approved27Sep2013.pdf .
Accordingly the Historical Carbon Debt in the article has been UNDER-ESTIMATED by a factor of 3.67 i.e. it is 3.67 times WORSE