On 1st June of 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord (PCA) portraying the deal to be an unfair one American people and American workers. There has been a furor among global media of the President’s decision as well as from global leaders many of whom like the newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron spoken publicly against the decision.

One of the key arguments of the United States has been that while the United States would have to put restrictions on the production of fuels like coal, oil, etc., countries like India and China would have to abide by no commitments for many years to come. Not only the U.S. President but other lawmakers have been citing examples of China and India in the debate. So, in this article, we try to see how big is the issue of United States’ Carbon Dioxide emissions compared to India and China.

A simple analysis of the data from British Petroleum strongly suggests that the United States does have a point, especially in the case of China. In the past, the United States has been the biggest CO2 emitter but China has surpassed the United States in 2006. In 2016, China emitted 70 percent more than that of the United States. While India is far behind compared to the United Sates or China, it is currently the third biggest emitter. It is a natural argument for the U.S. that why should it pay for the biggest emitter, which happens to be the second largest economy in the world.