Check yourself
Can you name the five countries that emit the most carbon dioxide? Total emissions, not per person; any order.
China is first by a wide margin, then the United States, India and Russia. Japan is fifth and Iran sixth.
These five countries emit the most carbon dioxide
| Rank | Country | Million tonnes | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 13,125 | 2024 |
| 2 | United States | 4,632 | 2024 |
| 3 | India | 3,154 | 2024 |
| 4 | Russia | 2,009 | 2024 |
| 5 | Japan | 972 | 2024 |
Total for the country, not per person
Data: World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0).
China emits more than the next three countries combined
China's emissions are greater than those of the United States, India and Russia added together. Its power stations burn mostly coal, which releases more carbon dioxide for each unit of energy than oil or gas, and it makes much of the world's steel, cement and manufactured goods. India is third in total, but its emissions per person are far below those of China or the United States.
Counting emissions where goods are made flatters importers
These are territorial figures: they count carbon dioxide where it is released. Goods made in China for buyers in the United Kingdom count towards China's total. The UK government also publishes a consumption-based measure, which assigns emissions to the country where goods are bought, and on that basis the UK's footprint is considerably larger than its territorial figure.
Carbon dioxide is a global negative externality
Use these rankings when you discuss climate change as an externality: the harm from one country's emissions falls on every country, so no single government has the incentive to cut enough on its own. Evaluate carbon taxes and tradable permits with that problem in mind, and note that the UK and the EU each run an emissions trading scheme.