Greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of the most important factors in causing climate change. The largest emitters are China followed by the United States. The United States has higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before.^[2] Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 GtC (2575 GtCO₂), of which 484±20 GtC (1773±73 GtCO₂) from fossil fuels and industry, and 219±60 GtC (802±220 GtCO₂) from land use change. Land-use change, such as deforestation, caused about 31% of cumulative emissions over 1870–2022, coal 32%, oil 24%, and gas 10%.^[3][4]

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the main greenhouse gas resulting from human activities. It accounts for more than half of warming. Methane (CH₄) emissions have almost the same short-term impact.^[5] Nitrous oxide (N₂O) and fluorinated gases (F-gases) play a lesser role in comparison. Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in 2023 were all higher than ever before.^[6]

Electricity generation, heat and transport are major emitters; overall energy is responsible for around 73% of emissions.^[7] Deforestation and other changes in land use also emit carbon dioxide and methane. The largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions is agriculture, closely followed by gas venting and fugitive emissions from the fossil-fuel industry. The largest agricultural methane source is livestock. Agricultural soils emit nitrous oxide partly due to fertilizers. Similarly, fluorinated gases from refrigerants play an outsized role in total human emissions.

The current CO₂-equivalent emission rates averaging 6.6 tonnes per person per year,^[8] are well over twice the estimated rate 2.3 tons^[9][10] required to stay within the 2030 Paris Agreement increase of 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) over pre-industrial levels.^[11] Annual per capita emissions in the industrialized countries are typically as much as ten times the average in developing countries.^[12]

The carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) serves as an indicator to compare the amount of greenhouse gases emitted over the entire life cycle from the production of a good or service along the supply chain to its final consumption.^[13][14] Carbon accounting (or greenhouse gas accounting) is a framework of methods to measure and track how much greenhouse gas an organization emits.^[15]