129Table 3.2 has some additional numbers worth noting. The top 12 emitters contrib-
uted 65.3 % of the global total in 1990, and 62.6 % of the global total in 2010. Over
this two decade period, global total emission of CO 2 -eq rose by 32 %, with nearly no
change in global per-capita emissions. Most interestingly, the per-capita emission of
the top 12, in aggregate, nearly equaled the global per-capita emission for both 1990
and 2010. In other words, reducing the emission of GHGs to achieve the goal of the
Paris Climate Agreement is a global problem: the actions of any one nation, or hand-
ful of nations, will have little effect unless the majority of nations participate.
In conclusion of this section, we shall make mention of the numerical entries for
Germany in Table 3.2. The pC-eqIN of Germany fell from 15.2 t CO 2 ppy in 1990 to
10.9 t CO 2 ppy in 2010. The drop in per-capita emission of Germany is also apparent
in Fig. 3.7. As highlighted towards the end of Chap. 4 , Germany has set the standard
for generation of energy by renewables that release little or no GHGs, which the rest
of the world will have to emulate to achieve the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Fig. 3.6 Atmospheric GHG emission maps, 1990 and 2010. National emissions of CO 2 FF +
CO 2 LUC + CH 4 + N 2 O in units of 10^9 metric tons of CO 2 -eq per year (Gt CO 2 -eq year−^1 ). See
Methods for further information
3.2 Prior Emissions