World's fossil-fuel CO2 emissions in 2009: China is No. 1 three years in a row

BP released its latest annual "Statistical Review of World Energy". This year, they calculated fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions of countries. China is the world's most emitter far away from No. 2, the United States.

The following chart is a record of CO₂ emissions changes in top ten dirtiest countries over the past 10 years.


Surprisingly, even in the global economic recession, the emissions in five countries (China, India, South Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia) increased from 2008 to 2009. (Annual change percentages the table below differ from BP's numbers in their original Excel spreadsheet. I cannot figure out the reason.)

Table: Annual Changes in Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
China	10.2%	9.8%	7.8%	6.8%	8.8%
US	0.3%	-1.2%	1.8%	-3.0%	-6.7%
EU	0.1%	0.6%	-1.5%	-1.9%	-6.7%
India	4.9%	4.2%	8.4%	8.8%	6.7%
Russia	-0.8%	2.7%	0.8%	1.9%	-8.7%
Japan	1.0%	-1.3%	1.0%	-0.2%	-12.0%
South Korea	2.1%	0.6%	5.5%	1.8%	1.5%
Canada	2.0%	-1.1%	2.3%	-1.0%	-6.1%
Iran	12.3%	4.1%	2.0%	5.2%	4.3%
Saudi Arabia	6.2%	4.1%	5.2%	8.4%	5.1%

Source: BP. (2010). BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2010. London, UK: BP. [Full-text at http://j.mp/BP_Stat_2010; Excel spreadsheet at http://j.mp/BP_Stat_2010_xls]