Welcome

This webpage summarises recent trends in global, regional and sectoral greenhouse gas emissions. This analysis has been developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment (AR6), Working Group (WG) III Report. Here you can find the emissions trend figures depicted across the report, but especially in Chapter 2 (Emissions Trends and Drivers), the summary documents (Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary), and sector chapters.

See the Info tab for more information on our sources and analysis.

Trends in total greenhouse gas emissions by gas

Total anthropogenic GHG emissions (GtCO2-eq yr-12 ) 1990-2019
CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes (FFI); CO2 from Land use, land use change and forestry (CO2 LULUCF); methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); fluorinated gases (F-gases). CO2 LULUCF emissions are net and include gross removals as well as emissions. F-gas emissions do not include Montreal gases (CFCs, HCFCs) which reached a peak in the 1990s but have since declined. Panel a: Aggregate GHG emission trends by groups of gases reported in GtCO2-eq converted based on global warming potentials with a 100-year time horizon (GWP-100) from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Working Group 1 (REF Chapter 7). Panel b: Waterfall diagrams juxtaposing GHG emissions for the most recent year 2019 in CO2 equivalent units using GWP-100 values from the IPCC’s Sixth, Fifth and Second Assessment Reports, respectively. Error bars show the associated uncertainties at a 90% confidence interval. Panel c: Individual trends in CO2-FFI, CO2-FOLU, CH4 and N2O emissions in (original) mass units 10 (Gt yr-1) for the period 1990–2019, normalised relative to 1 in 1990. Note the different scale for F-gas emissions compared to other gases, highlighting its very rapid growth from a low base.
Links: data | code | download png

Trends in total greenhouse gas emissions, by region

Change in regional GHG emissions and rates of change compatible with warming targets
Panel a: Regional GHG emission trends (in GtCO2-eq yr-1 (GWP100 AR6)) for the time period 1990–2019. GHG emissions from international aviation (AIR) and shipping (SEA) are not assigned to individual countries and shown separately. Panel b: Historical GHG emissions change by country (2010–2019), compared to rates of reduction compatible with 1.5°C and 2°C warming targets, assessed via reduction rates in AR6 IAM scenarios over the period 2020-2040. Individual circles depict countries (scaled by total emissions in 2019) or scenarios, horizontal lines depict the average change by region or scenario category. Panel b excludes CO2 LULUCF due to a lack of consistent national data.
Links: data | code | download png

Emissions by sector, including indirect emissions from the electricity and heat sector

Global greenhouse gas emissions and their sources
The stacked bar on the left indicates total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, split by sectors based on direct (scope 1) emissions accounting. The arrows shown next to the electricity and heat sector depict the reallocation of these emissions to final sectors as indirect (scope 2) emissions. This increases the contribution to global emissions from the industry and buildings sector (central stacked bar). This reallocation does not imply full lifecycle emissions – see Annex B {A.B.8} for more details. The stacked bar on the far right indicates the shares of subsectors in global emissions when indirect emissions are included. GHG emissions are reported in GtCO2-eq, based on global warming potentials with a 100-year time horizon (GWP-100) from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Working Group 1 Report.
Links: data | code | download png

Emissions by region with country perspectives

Change in regional GHGs from multiple perspectives and their underlying drivers
Panel a: Regional GHG emission trends (in GtCO2eq yr-1) for the time period 1990-2019. GHG emissions from international aviation (AIR) and shipping (SEA) are not assigned to individual countries and shown separately. Panels b and c: Changes in GHG emissions for the 20 largest emitters (as of 2019) for the post-AR5 reporting period 2010-2019 in relative (% annual change) and absolute terms (GtCO2eq). Panels d and e: GHG emissions per capita and per GDP in 2019 for the 20 largest emitters (as of 2019). GDP estimated using constant international purchasing power parity (USD 2017). Emissions are converted into CO2-equivalents based on global warming potentials with a 100 year time horizon (GWP-100) from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. The yellow dots represent the emissions data according to the national inventories reported by the Annex I countries of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC (Gütschow et al., 2021; Louise Jeffery et al., 2018). LULUCF CO2 emissions are included in panel a, based on the average of three bookkeeping models (see data explanation in section 2.2 introduction), but are excluded in panels b to e due to a lack of regional resolution.
Links: data | code | download png

Equity perspectives - historical and current contributions to global emissions

Different perspectives on historic emissions and equity
Panel a depicts carbon emissions from fossil fuel and industry over the past 5 decades. The single year decline in emissions following major economic and geopolitical events is shown, as well as the decline recorded in 4 different datasets for emissions in 2020 compared to 2019. Panel b depicts the perturbation of daily carbon emissions in 2020 compared to 2019, showing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown policies.
Links: data | code | download png

Long term trend of CO2 emissions sources vs. remaining carbon budgets

Historic anthropogenic CO2 emission and cumulative CO2 emissions (1850-2019) as well as remaining carbon budgets for limiting warming to 1.5°C and 2°C
Panel a depicts carbon emissions from fossil fuel and industry over the past 5 decades. The single year decline in emissions following major economic and geopolitical events is shown, as well as the decline recorded in 4 different datasets for emissions in 2020 compared to 2019. Panel b depicts the perturbation of daily carbon emissions in 2020 compared to 2019, showing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown policies.
Links: data | code | download png

Sector emissions trends

Global greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to five sectors: energy systems; industry; agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU); buildings; and transport. Here we show the trends in each of these sectors.

For the industry, buildings and transport sectors, we show the indirect CO2 emissions associated with electricity and heat supply.

Most of these figures and analysis have been published in the following article, which also includes a review of the literature on trends, sector by sector:

• A review of trends and drivers of greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2018

Consolidated data files are available for the figures here:

• Emissions by sector

All sectors - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for all sectors
Panel a shows total global anthropogenic GHG emissions divided into major sectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. This figure shows the direct (scope 1) allocation of emissions to sectors.
Links: download png

All sectors - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for all sectors
Panel a shows total global anthropogenic GHG emissions divided into major sectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. This figure shows the direct (scope 1) allocation of emissions to sectors.
Links: download png

Energy sector - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the energy sector
Panel a shows total global energy systems GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. This figure shows the direct (scope 1) allocation of emissions to sectors. Note that emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are allocated as indirect (scope 2) emissions to the buildings, industry and transport sectors in the following sections (thus double counting between these respective sector figures).
Links: download png

Energy sector - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the energy sector
Panel a shows total global energy systems GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. This figure shows the direct (scope 1) allocation of emissions to sectors. Note that emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are allocated as indirect (scope 2) emissions to the buildings, industry and transport sectors in the following sections (thus double counting between these respective sector figures).
Links: download png

Industry sector - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the industry sector
Panel a shows total global industry GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are shown here in grey.
Links: download png

Industry sector - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the industry sector
Panel a shows total global industry GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are shown here in grey.
Links: download png

Building sector - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the buildings sector
Panel a shows total global industry GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are shown here in grey.
Links: download png

Building sector - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the buildings sector
Panel a shows total global industry GHG emissions divided into major subsectors. Panel b shows regional emission trends in the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from the electricity and heat subsector are shown here in grey.
Links: download png

Transport sector - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the transport sector
Panel b shows emissions at the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from electricity and heat consumed in transport are shown here, but are not added to the transport sector totals in figure x3.1 (total emissions for all sectors). International aviation and shipping is included in panel a, but excluded from panel b.
Links: download png

Transport sector - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the transport sector
Panel b shows emissions at the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018. Indirect emissions from electricity and heat consumed in transport are shown here, but are not added to the transport sector totals in figure x3.1 (total emissions for all sectors). International aviation and shipping is included in panel a, but excluded from panel b.
Links: download png

AFOLU sector - regional trends

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the AFOLU sector
Panel b shows emissions at the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018.
Links: download png

AFOLU sector - Kaya trends and per capita emissions

Global and regional GHG emissions trends for the AFOLU sector
Panel b shows emissions at the years 1990, 2000, 2010, 2018.
Links: download png

COVID-19 and 2020 emissions

Emissions in 2020 dropped substantially compared to the previous year, due to the impacts of lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following figure shows the trend in annual CO2 emissions up to 2020, the range of estimates for the 2020 drop in emissions, and compares these to previous global events. Two datasets (Le Quere et al 2021 and Liu et al 2021) also depict the change in 2020 daily emissions relative to 2019.

Global carbon emissions in 2020 and the impact of COVID-19

Global carbon emissions in 2020 and the impact of COVID-19
Panel a depicts carbon emissions from fossil fuel and industry over the past 5 decades. The single year decline in emissions following major economic and geopolitical events is shown, as well as the decline recorded in 4 different datasets for emissions in 2020 compared to 2019. Panel b depicts the perturbation of daily carbon emissions in 2020 compared to 2019, showing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown policies.
Links: data | code | download png

Emissions change by region in EDGARv6

Links: data | code | download png

Emissions change by sector in EDGARv6

Links: data | code | download png

Emissions change by subsector in EDGARv6

Links: data | code | download png

Growth rates

Here we have compiled growth rate estimations for gases, regions, sectors, subsectors and countries. We use the simple compound average growth rate calculation:

r = (E(t+n)/E(t))^(1/n) - 1

where E is the emissions value in a given year t.

The code for producing these tables is here: link

A spreadsheet is also available: link

Gases

Regions (IPCC 6 Regions)

Sectors (excl. indirect CO2)

Sectors (incl. indirect CO2)

Subsectors (excl. indirect CO2 emissions)

Countries

Authors

The following team compiled the emissions data from underlying sources, designed and carried out the analysis, and produced the figures:

• William F. Lamb (IPCC AR6 WGIII Ch2), Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC)
• Jan C. Minx (IPCC AR6 WGIII Ch2), Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC)
• Niklas Döbbling, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC)

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following authors: Alaa Al Khourdajie, Julia Pongratz, Robbie Andrew, Thomas Wiedmann, Monica Crippa, Jos G.J. Olivier, Jo House, Maria Figueroa, Yamina Saheb, Raphael Slade, Suzana Kahn Ribeiro, Smail Khennas, Stephane de la Rue du Can, Igor Bashmakov, Josep G. Canadell, Piers M. Forster, Diego Guizzardi, Glen P. Peters, Andy Reisinger, Matthew Rigby, Marielle Saunois, Steven J. Smith, Efisio Solazzo, Hanqin Tian, Michael Grubb

Data sources

We use the EDGAR v6.0 database of greenhouse gas emissions, which covers all major anthropogenic emissions sources and has a time span of 1970 to 2019 (Crippa et al 2019). EDGAR includes CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion derived from International Energy Agency data (IEA), supplemented with CH4 and N2O emissions from forest and peat fires taken from the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED v4.1s; Van Der Werf et al 2017).

EDGAR does not include land-use, land-use change and forestry CO2 emissions and removals (LULUCF CO2 emissions). We therefore source these separately, using the average of three global bookkeeping models (Hansis et al 2015, Houghton and Nassikas 2017, Gasser et al 2020) in a convention established by the Global Carbon Project (Friedlingstein et al 2019). These include CO2 emissions from peat burning and draining from FAO and GFED.

Sector and region classification

We group greenhouse gas emissions sources into five sectors covering aspects of energy supply, including fossil fuel extraction, processing, transport and generation (energy systems sector), energy demand in final sectors (transport, buildings, and industry sectors), non-energy related process emissions (e.g. cement and Fgases within industry), and agriculture and LULUCF emissions (AFOLU). 27 further sub-sectors capture more detailed emissions trends.

Countries are grouped into regions following the IPCC AR6 WGIII classification based on geography and development status.

Global warming potentials

We use global warming potentials with a time horizon of 100 years (GWP100) to compare and aggregate different greenhouse gases. We use the latest GWP100 values with climate feedbacks from IPCC AR6 Working Group I, which are confidential until the release of the report in August 2021.

Data access

The data is published in an open access preprint, with the full detail on our sources and methods available:

• A comprehensive dataset for global, regional and national greenhouse gas emissions by sector 1970–2019

• Data repository

[Note: a separate file with AR6 GWP100 values is available for IPCC authors on DM]

Differences to EDGARv5

Several changes occurred between EDGAR v5 and EDGAR v6. Methane emissions were revised down prior to 1990. Fgas emissions were substantially revised downwards. Savannah fire emissions are no longer available. The following file provides some detailed analysis on these changes in terms of totals, regions, sectors and countries: Link