> My understanding is the climate is unconcerned with the per capita figure. It is concerned with total CO2.
That it is concerned with the total CO2 is why per capita is the correct measure when determining if some group of people is doing better or worse than some other group of people at addressing CO2 emissions.
If you go by per country, then countries splitting or joining can change whether a group of people are emitting more or less than their fair share of the world's total CO2 budget. A high emissions country can simply split into multiple smaller low emissions countries. They are still emitting the same amount, but because they redrew some arbitrary lines on the map they are suddenly low emitters.
Take that to its logical conclusion and you get more and more splits, with the limit being a world of 7 billion countries, and per country then ends up being per capita anyway.
That it is concerned with the total CO2 is why per capita is the correct measure when determining if some group of people is doing better or worse than some other group of people at addressing CO2 emissions.
If you go by per country, then countries splitting or joining can change whether a group of people are emitting more or less than their fair share of the world's total CO2 budget. A high emissions country can simply split into multiple smaller low emissions countries. They are still emitting the same amount, but because they redrew some arbitrary lines on the map they are suddenly low emitters.
Take that to its logical conclusion and you get more and more splits, with the limit being a world of 7 billion countries, and per country then ends up being per capita anyway.