A visual journey through national CO₂ emissions

Global CO₂ emision from Fossil Fuels

Global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels totalled 37.5 Gt (Gigatonnes) in 2023. These emissions come from the combustion of coal, oil, gas and other processes like cement production.

That is up 1% from compared to 2022, when emissions totalled 37.1 Gt.

Emissions from 2023 are also the highest historically.

However, over the last decade, the annual growth rate of emissions has significantly slowed compared to the period spanning from 1950 to 2012. We hopefully move beyond peak emissions in the next few years.

Next, let's dive into national and regional emissions.

European Union (EU27)

The combined fossil CO₂ emissions of the current 27 EU nations peaked around 1980 after a long period of fast increase every year.

Since 2006 there is steady decline of fossil CO₂ emission.

Territorial and consumption emissions

The line shows CO₂ emitted inside the territory of the 27 EU nations. They also import a lot of goods and the production emissions of those goods are counted to the territory of the producing country. When we put those emissions on the EU's account we get the so called consumption emissions. The shaded area shows the increase (it is only available from 1990 till 2021).

The EU's consumption emissions are quite a bit higher than the terrotorial emissions. However, it is not the case the EU nations are reducing emissions by 'off-setting' their emissions abroad. Both the territorial and consumption emissions are reducing similarly since 2006.

USA

In the USA emissions have peaked two decades ago and they are also steadily declining since 2006.

When taking into account the consumption emissions of the USA they are also still decreasing.

The USA and EU27 have shown that economic growth is possible with reducing CO₂ emissions.

India

In the last 30 years India is developing quickly. This rapid development is paired with increasing fossil CO₂ emissions.

Due to exports, India's consumption emissions are lower than the emissions within their borders, although only slightly.

China

At the turn of the century, China experienced unprecedented increases in fossil fuel consumption, tripling its coal consumption within a decade.

China does produce an incredible amount of products for the world. In the last 20 years from 7% up to 20% of yearly emissions were for exported goods.

Bunker fuels

Bunker fuels emissions are international aviation and shipping emissions. They are not easily attributed to specific nations.

They dropped a lot during the covid pandemic, but they are on the rise again.

Rest of the World

The emissions from all other countries combined have possibly peaked and hopefully started a long term decline.

This group comprises numerous developed and developing nations, in the next section some of these will be highlighted.

Per Capita Emissions

China currently is the largest emitter, however it also has a very large population. When focusing on per-capita emissions, the USA historically and presently stands out.

The black line (Rest of the World) represents many nations, some with low, but also some with very high per-capita emissions. Let's highlight some of these next.

Canada

Canada's historic per capita emissions have great resemblence to those of the USA. It is lower maninly due the fact that Canada has had relatively lower coal usage and a significant amount of hydro power.

Australia

Australia also has very high per-capita emissions, but it's also a great example of how swiftly per-capita emissions can go from a strong increase to a strong decrease within just a few years.

A significant part of their emissions are for export, but even with that taken into account they are large per capita emitters.

Saudi-Arabia

Like many other Middle Eastern countries that are rich in fossil fuels, Saudi-Arabia rapidly started extracting and burning fossil fuels since the middle of the last century.

United Arab Emirates

When we highlight the historic per capita emission of the United Arab Emirates we have to adjust the range. United Arab Emirates experienced a surge in per capita emissions following the abundant availability of fossil fuels in 1969. Back in those days it's population was only around 250k and has increased to over 9 million inhabitants currently.

Next, let's look into the per capita emissions of some other large economic powers.

United Kingdom

The Industrial Revolution started in the UK. The UK has a long history with coal, which by now have been almost completely phased out. The current per capita emissions are roughly equal to those of 1850, but keep in mind that actual emissions are roughly 2.5 times as high due to the population increase.

The UK has significantly higher consumption emissions, despite that the downward trend looks very promising.

Russia

The historic emissions of Russia are unlike any other. The dissolution of the Soviet Union caused an incredible drop in per capita emissions.

The trade-adjusted consumption emissions for Russia are significantly lower, however per capita emissions are still relatively high.

Russia uses mostly natural gas, which has lower emissions than coal and oil, however the amount of energy used per capita is really high in Russia causing high emissions despite the natural gas.

Japan

Japan's oil consumption grew incredibly fast during the 1960s. That growth stopped abruptly during the first oil crisis as Japan tried to reduce its dependency on oil.

Japan's CO₂ emissions have clearly peaked and been steadily declining since 2013.

All the per-capita emissions we have seen so far are in stark contrast with the average per-capita emissions of the continents South America and Africa.

South American continent

The average per capita emissions of South America are lower than the global average and they have been decreasing since 2014. Brazil, with half of the continent's population, generates a lot of its energ from hydro and bioenergy.

African continent

The CO₂ emissions per capita on the African continent are notably low and show no signs increase.

End notes

Further sharp increases of national emissions, particularly in China, must be avoided. The Western nations, who have historically emitted so much, must support other nations to develop with reduced emissions.

The global average per capita CO₂ emissions already peaked in 2012. This is a first good sign that overall emissions can peak very soon too, after which we can globally start a rapid decline that some nations have already shown is possible.

Data sources

All emissions data from the 2023 Global Carbon Budget by the Global Carbon Project.

Population data for per capita calculations is from Our World in Data.