tons of CO2 /person in 1997	tons of C /person en 1997
USA	19,7 (en 2005)	5,4
Australia	14,9	4,1
Canada	14,5	4,0
Belgium	10,6	2,9
Germany	10,3 (en 2005)	2,8
Denmark	9,6 (en 2000)	2,6
UK and Ireland	9,4	2.5
Japan	8,9	2.4
Italy	7,1	1,9
Switzerland	6,6	1,8
Spain	6,3	1.7
France	6,3 (en 2005)	1,7
Sweden	5,5 (en 2000)	1,5

It should be noticed that transportation (airplanes, automobiles, trucks) burn fossile fuels and represent about one third of the total energy, therefore accounting an important proportion of the CO2 emissions.

This explains in part, but not entirely, why the largest countries or those with a low density of population (such as USA, Canada, Australia) emit more.

France's low emissions are due to the fact that almost all (95%) of it's electricity is produced by nuclear (80%) and hydraulic energy (15%) who contribute very little to the CO2 emissions. France without nuclear energy would be obliged to burn coal or gas to produce it's electricity, which would then increase it's emissions to about 10 tons per year and per person of CO2.