Two degrees Celsius may not seem like much, but on our planet, it could be the difference between thriving life and a disastrous climate.

Over two centuries of burning fossil fuels have added up, and global decision-makers and business leaders are focusing in on carbon emissions as a key issue.

Emissions by Country

This week's chart uses the most recent data from Global Carbon Atlas to demonstrate where most of the world's CO? emissions come from, sorted by country.

In terms of absolute emissions, the heavy hitters are immediately obvious. Large economies such as China, the United States, and India alone account for almost half the world's emissions. Zoom out a little further, and it's even clearer that just a handful of countries are responsible for the majority of emissions.

Of course, absolute emissions don't tell the full story. The world is home to over 7.5 billion people, but they aren't distributed evenly across the globe. How do these carbon emissions shake out on a per capita basis?