Why does Mongolia have such a high carbon footprint?

Last weekend I was doing a talk at Ely Cathedral, and I showed a slide of per capita carbon emissions around the world. Somebody asked a question that I’ve had a few times now – what’s going on in Mongolia?

Located between China and Russia, Mongolia is easy to spot on this map. It’s the only country in bright red, which suggests that it has the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world. They come in just short of 27 tonnes per person – that’s twice the emissions of the average Amer...