Researchers have fill a look at the carbon footprints of 13,000 city in a big study of the world ’s urban region .

A sketch on the findings , lead by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology , was publish inEnvironmental Research Letters . The squad look at the carbon copy emission of each city , and then rate them in order . A city in this report was defined as being a “ contiguous densely populated area ” .

The top was Seoul in South Korea , output about 276.1 t ( 304.4 ton ) of carbon dioxide each year . Next on the list were Guangzhou in China , New York in the US , Hong Kong in China , and Los Angles in the US .

London in the UK add up in at number 16 , while Beijing in China was telephone number 18 . New Delhi in India only came in at bit 30 , despite a population of 27 million , while Sau Paulo in Brazil was all the fashion down in 63rd , despite a population of well-nigh 20 million .

Here ’s the top 10 list , with their one-year carbon discharge in   tonnes shown in wall bracket . you could check out the interactive maphere .

1 . Seoul , South Korea ( 276.1 )

2 . Guangzhou , China ( 272.0 )

3 . New York , US ( 233.5 )

4 . Hong Kong , China ( 208.5 )

5 . Los Angeles , US ( 196.4 )

6 . Shanghai , China ( 181.0 )

7 . Singapore ( 161.1 )

8 . Chicago , US ( 152.9 )

9 . Tokyo , Japan ( 132.8 )

10 . Riyadh , Saudi Arabia ( 118.8 )

Perhaps the most surprising thing from the findings was how saturated emissions were . The researcher find out that the top 100 city were responsible for 18 pct of the global carbon footprint , suggesting changes at a local level could have a spectacular effect on emission .

" The top 100 high - footprint cities worldwide force roughly 20 pct of the global atomic number 6 footprint , " Daniel Moran , the subject area ’s lead author , said in astatement . " This means concerted activity by a small number of local mayors and governments can significantly reduce national full carbon step . "

The team also found that urban expanse are home to about 54 pct of the total worldwide universe , and account for 70 per centum of global energy use . And it also seems that income is a secure indicant of carbon footprint , with the top 600 urban centers creditworthy for 60 percent of spheric GDP .

" The fact that carbon paper step are extremely concentrated in affluent city means that place beat in a few place and by selected concretion can have a big effect covering important consumption hot spot , " Moran sum up .