Image: Jyrki Lyytikkä / Yle

People resident in Finland cause more carbon dioxide emissions by flying than those resident in any other country in the world except Singapore, according to new figures from the International Council on Clean Transportation.

CO2 emissions caused by international flights to and from Finland are around the same as emissions from private cars in the country.

Third in the ranking is Iceland, fourth is Australia and in fifth spot comes Britain.

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Image: Leena Luotio / Yle, Source ICCT

The figures include passengers whose journeys start or end in Finland, but not transit passengers heading through Finland on their way to other countries.

Singaporeans were responsible for some 1.2 tonnes of CO2 from flights, while Finns and Icelanders were the cause of around a tonne each.

A tonne of carbon dioxide is emitted by, for example, driving the average new car sold in 2019 for around 6,000 kilometres.

The data also stripped out foreign tourists by adjusting the dataset using data from the World Bank. If those visitors were included, the countries with the highest emissions would be the Domincan Republic, Croatia and Portugal.

The biggest emissions in absolute terms, that is not divided by population, come from American, Chinese, British, Japanese and German flights.