Each Country's Share of CO2 Emissions

Published Jul 16, 2008Updated Jul 12, 2023

The wealthy nations of the world are responsible for most carbon emissions.

Cumulative carbon dioxide emissions are the dominant driver of climate change. These began rising during the Industrial Revolution (especially after 1850)—which means richer countries like the United States, which made an early transition to a heavily fossil fuel-based economic system, have an outsized role in contributing to the climate impacts we see around the world today.

Both in terms of cumulative emissions, and current per capita emissions, richer countries rank high. Conversely, low- and middle-income countries have lower cumulative historical emissions and per capita emissions. Even within countries, it is the relatively rich that are most responsible for a majority of carbon emissions.

A graph of the top CO2 emitting countries from 1750 to 2021.

Rank	Country	CO₂ emissions (total)
1	United States	421,907MT
2	China	249,353MT
3	Russia	117,548MT
4	Germany	93,291MT
5	United Kingdom	78,509MT
6	Japan	65,711MT
7	India	57,105MT
8	France	39,106MT
9	Canada	34,115MT
10	Ukraine	30,785MT
11	Poland	28,196MT
12	Italy	25,065MT
13	South Africa	21,465MT
14	Mexico	20,588MT
15	Iran	19,547M

Cumulative emissions from 1750-2020. From fossil fuels and cement only. MT = Metric megatons

The rankings above change when we account for the population of each country (ie, per capita emissions), or when we change the timeframe.

A pie chart of the top annual CO2 emitting countries in 2020.

Rank	Country	CO₂ emissions (total)
1	China	10.04GT
2	United States	4.32GT
3	India	2.34GT
4	Russian Federation	1.56GT
5	Japan	1.00T
6	Germany	0.60GT
7	Indonesia	0.58GT
8	Islamic Republic of Iran	0.58GT
9	South Korea	0.55GT
10	Canada	0.52GT
11	Saudi Arabia	0.50GT
12	Brazil	0.39GT
13	South Africa	0.39GT
14	Australia	0.38GT
15	Turkey	0.37GT
16	Mexico	0.36GT
17	United Kingdom	0.31GT
18	Vietnam	0.29GT
19	Italy	0.28GT
20	Poland	0.28GT
21	France	0.27GT

All emissions from 2020. Fuel combustion only. GT = Metric gigatons

The picture that emerges from these figures is one where—in general—developed countries and major emerging economy nations lead in total carbon dioxide emissions.

However, developed nations typically have high carbon dioxide emissions per capita, while some developing countries lead in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. These uneven contributions to the climate crisis are at the core of the challenges the world community faces in finding effective and equitablesolutions to global warming.

2019 rankings by per capita emissions

A bar graph of the top CO2 emitting countries per capita in 2020.

Rank	Country	CO₂ emissions (total)
1	Qatar	29.2T
2	Brunei Darussalam	21.05T
3	Kuwait	20.96T
4	Gibraltar	18.95T
5	Bahrain	18.87T
6	United Arab Emirates	18.28T
7	Australia	14.57T
8	Saudi Arabia	13.89T
9	Canada	13.36T
10	Curaçao	13T
11	United States	12.9T
12	Oman	12.56T
13	Luxembourg	11.81T
14	Kazakhstan	10.9T
15	Russian Federation	10.77T