China's greenhouse gas emissions exceed every developed nation combined, researchers say

China produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other developed nation in the world combined, according to new data.

What are the details?

Despite climate change alarmists who claim the U.S. has a problem with greenhouse gas emissions, a new report from the Rhodium Group exposes China as the world's overwhelming leader of greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers said China was responsible for 27% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, nearly three times the amount emitted by the United States and more than the entire developed world combined.

The U.S. contributed 11%, while India and the European Union were each over 6%.

Shockingly, China's greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 have more than tripled since 1990, according to the Rhodium Group, when "China's emissions were less than a quarter of developed country emissions."

China's per capita emissions have also skyrocketed, according to Rhodium Group — but still significantly trail the U.S.

"China's 2019 per capita emissions reached 10.1 tons, nearly tripling over the past two decades. This comes in just below avg levels across the [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] bloc (10.5 tons), but still significantly lower than the US, which has the highest per capita emissions at 17.6 tons," the group tweeted.

The research group appeared to soften China's massive greenhouse gas output by explaining China is responsible for relatively less emissions than other developed countries that industrialized prior to China.

"China's history as a major emitter is relatively short compared to developed countries, many of which had more than a century head start. A large share of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere each year hangs around for hundreds of years. As a result, current global warming is the result of emissions from both the recent and more distant past. Since 1750, members of the OECD bloc have emitted four times more CO2 on a cumulative basis than China," the group wrote.

What about 2020?

Preliminary data from 2020 show that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in China.

"Based on preliminary economic and energy data, we estimate that total GHG emissions in China increased 1.7% in 2020, reaching 14,400 million metric tons (MMt) of CO2e," the Rhodium Group said.

"To put that figure in context, we estimate that is the equivalent of the total annual emissions of nearly 180 of the world's lowest-emitting countries combined," researchers explained.

Despite the massive amount of emissions, China signed the Paris climate agreement and Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to make China carbon neutral by 2060.