List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions

Crippa, M ; Guizzardi, D ; Pagani, F ; Banja, M ; Muntean, M ; Schaaf, E ; Quadrelli, R ; Risquez Martin, A ; Taghavi-Moharamli, P ; Köykkä, J ; Grassi, G ; Melo, J ; Suárez-Moreno, M ; Sedano, F ; San-Miguel, J ; Manca, G ; Pisoni, E ; Pekar, F

This is a list of sovereign states and territories by greenhouse gas emissions due to certain forms of human activity, based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission. The following table lists the 1970, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 annual GHG{{refn|group=n|Greenhouse gases (GHG) constitute a group of gases contributing to global warming and climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol, an environmental agreement adopted by many of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 to curb global warming, nowadays covers seven greenhouse gases:

• the non-fluorinated gases:
  • carbon dioxide (CO2),
  • methane (CH4),
  • nitrous oxide (N2O),
• the fluorinated gases:
  • hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
  • perfluorocarbons (PFCs),
  • sulphur hexafluoride (SF6),
  • nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). Converting them to carbon dioxide (or ) equivalents makes it possible to compare them and to determine their individual and total contributions to global warming.}} emissions estimates (in kilotons of equivalent per year) along with a list of calculated emissions per capita (in metric tons of equivalent per year). The data include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from all sources, including agriculture and land use change. They are measured in carbon dioxide-equivalents over a 100-year timescale.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th assessment report finds that the "Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU)" sector on average, accounted for 13–21% of global total anthropogenic GHG emissions in the period 2010–2019. Land use change emissions can be negative.{{refn|group=n|[[File:Global_carbon_cycle.png|thumb|200px|Global Carbon Project (2022)]] The rate of build-up of GHG in the atmosphere can be reduced by taking advantage of the fact that atmospheric can accumulate as carbon in vegetation and soils in terrestrial ecosystems. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change any process, activity or mechanism which removes a greenhouse gas (GHG) from the atmosphere is referred to as a "sink". Human activities impact terrestrial sinks, through land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), consequently, the exchange of (carbon cycle) between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere is altered.

In 2023, global GHG emissions reached 53.0 Gteq (without Land Use, land Use Change and Forestry). The 2023 data represent the highest level recorded and experienced an increase of 1.9% or 994 Mteq compared to the levels in 2022. The majority of GHG emissions consisted of fossil accounting for 73.7% of total emissions.

China, the United States, India, the EU27, Russia and Brazil were the world’s largest GHG emitters in 2023. Together they account for 49.8% of global population, 63.2% of global gross domestic product, 64.2% of global fossil fuel consumption and 62.7% of global GHG emissions. Among these top emitters, in 2023 China, India, Russia and Brazil increased their emissions compared to 2022, with India having the largest increase in relative terms (+ 6.1%) and China the largest absolute increase by 784 Mteq.

GHG emissions from the top 10 countries with the highest emissions accounted for almost two thirds of the global total. Since 2006, China has been emitting more than any other country.

However, the main disadvantage of measuring total national emissions is that it does not take population size into account. China has the largest and GHG emissions in the world, but also the second largest population. Some argue that for a fair comparison, emissions should be analyzed in terms of the amount of and GHG per capita.

Considering GHG per capita emissions in 2023, China's levels (11.11) are 53% higher than those of the European Union (7.26), are almost two-thirds those of the United States (17.61) and less than a sixth of those of Palau (65,29) – the country with the highest emissions of GHG per capita in 2023.

Measures of territorial-based emissions, also known as production-based emissions, do not account for emissions embedded in global trade, where emissions may be imported or exported in the form of traded goods, as it only reports emissions emitted within geographical boundaries. Accordingly, a proportion of the produced and reported in Asia and Africa is for the production of goods consumed in Europe and North America.

According to the review of the scientific literature conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas by warming contribution. Greenhouse gases (GHG) – primarily carbon dioxide but also others, including methane and chlorofluorocarbons – trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming. Higher temperatures then act on the climate, with varying effects. For example, dry regions might become drier while, at the poles, the ice caps are melting, causing higher sea levels. In 2016, the global average temperature was already 1.1 °C above pre-industrial levels.