Historical Polluters

Climate campaigners have condemned the US after the world’s largest historic greenhouse gas emitter argued against countries being legally obliged to combat the climate crisis at the International Criminal Court as part of the climate hearing in The Hague, where climate-vulnerable countries are calling for nations most responsible for climate breakdown to be held legally responsible.
According to the US, the United Nations framework convention on climate change and the 2015 Paris agreement are the best way forward which the director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change said was 'The US shirking its historical responsibility and disregarding human rights and rejecting climate justice'.
Australia, China and Saudi Arabia also argued against legal accountability that developing nations are pushing for and joined the US in dismissing the idea that historic emitters be held responsible for past pollution.  
Analysis of the total carbon dioxide emissions by Carbon Brief of countries since 1850 when 2,500 billion tonnes of CO2 has been pumped into the atmosphere has revealed the nations with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate crisis through burning fossil fuels and deforestation are US (500 billion tonnes of CO2), China (275 billion tonnes), Russia (175 billion tonnes), Brazil (110 billion tonnes), Indonesia (103 billion tonnes), Germany (80 billion tonnes), India (75 billion tonnes), UK (65 billion tonnes), Japan (55 billion tonnes) and Canada (50 billion tonnes).
The US has been the biggest cumulative polluter from 1850 all the way to the present day. Russia was the second biggest polluter until 2007, when its emissions were surpassed by China’s, whose emissions started rising rapidly from the 1970s. The UK was the third biggest emitter for a century, from 1870 until 1970, when it was overtaken by Brazil.
Over the next two weeks, the court will hear statements from 98 countries, including wealthy developed states with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate emergency, such as the UK and Russia, and states that have contributed very little to global greenhouse gas emissions but stand to bear the brunt of their impact, including Bangladesh and Sudan as well as Pacific island countries.