A small group of countries accounts for a large share of global fossil carbon dioxide emissions. The latest complete national data, covering 2024, puts China, the United States and India far ahead of every other individual country.
China emitted about 12.3 billion tonnes of fossil CO2 in 2024, according to the Global Carbon Budget 2025. The United States followed with 4.9 billion tonnes, while India produced about 3.2 billion tonnes.
Together, China, the United States and India were responsible for about 20.4 billion tonnes of fossil CO2 in 2024, more than half of the global total of about 37.8 billion tonnes.
China’s emissions were almost 2.5 times those of the United States and more than three times India’s. Russia remained the fourth-largest national emitter, followed by Japan.
The figures measure fossil CO2 emissions from sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. They do not directly include emissions from land-use change, such as deforestation, and international aviation and shipping are reported separately.
The ranking also looks different when emissions are measured per person. The United States, for example, emitted about 14.2 tonnes of fossil CO2 per person in 2024, compared with about 8.6 tonnes in China and 2.2 tonnes in India.
Countries are also expanding renewable electricity, although the scale and pace of that transition differs widely between national energy systems.
The latest Global Carbon Budget projects global fossil CO2 emissions to reach about 38.1 billion tonnes in 2025, keeping the global total at record levels.
Sources: Global Carbon Budget; Our World in Data.
