So why is the UK so important?

In this section I argue that the UK's influence on global emissions is significant, and certainly greater than you might expect for our relatively small country.

Our emissions are very high for such a small country. In 1990, we were responsible for 2.5% of global carbon emissions - the 8^th biggest contributor [i] . This is even more significant when you consider that our population (at 56 million) was 1% of the whole world.

The other, and more important point, is that we had a vast empire [i] , which you can see from the map. Large parts of the Empire were still under UK rule only 100 years ago. Our influence was obviously global, with the rest of the world intimately linked in trade, treaties and competition (e.g. British opium, grown in India and traded for Chinese tea). We were very rich, and a lot of that came from our coal-fuelled Industrial Revolution. Whilst this is all history, it has not been forgotten.

The upshot of both of these points is that the UK has a relatively large influence when it comes to Climate Change mitigation.

If we do not meet our emission targets, we give a big excuse the rest of the world not do their bit. We had our cake and ate it. There is likely to be resentment if we do not do our fair share of the work now.
On the flip-side, memories of us as global leaders have not completely faded. We have the opportunity to lead by example, and many parts of the world will value our help and expertise.
If we meet our emission targets, we give our politicians and diplomats a suitable platform to stand on, to try and persuade the rest of the world to meet them too. We can only expect the rest of the world to go as far as us...this is where the big assumption that we can draw graphs of UK emissions and expect them to match global CO₂ stabilisations lines.

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