CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a colorless gas that occurs naturally in Earth's atmosphere as a trace gas. Natural sources include volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers. It is also a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning, land use changes, and other industrial processes. The burning of carbon-based fuels has rapidly increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2, accelerating global warming and driving anthropogenic climate change.

This interactive map shows CO2 emissions per capita (tonnes of CO2 equivalent) from the agriculture, energy, waste, and industrial sectors. The data excludes emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), which carry greater measurement uncertainty. See the video below for an animation showing the changes through the years and check out the interactive version to explore the data in more detail.

The data comes from the EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) Community GHG Database, published jointly by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA), and is available from the World Bank website, where it is described as:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions excluding LULUCF per capita: total annual emissions of CO2 from the agriculture, energy, waste, and industrial sectors, standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values and divided by population. Emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) are excluded due to larger measurement uncertainties. Licensed under CC BY-4.0.