Human-Induced Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main drivers of human-induced warming. In the scientific literature, human-induced emissions are often referred to as anthropogenic emissions. They are grouped as follows:

CO₂ Fossil Fuels and Industry (CO₂ FFI)
CO₂ Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (CO₂ LULUCF)
Methane (CH₄)
Nitrous oxide (N₂O)
Fluorinated gases (F-gases)

Emissions from all different gases are expressed in CO₂-equivalent units to make it possible to compare the relative emissions from these different gases. CO₂-equivalents are calculated using the global warming potentials of the respective gases, in this case using a 100-year time horizon.

Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025, section 2: Emissions: Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025, Piers M. Forster et al.

CO₂ From Fossil Fuels and Industry

The sources are mostly fossil-fuel combustion emissions from coal, oil, and gas, as well as emissions from industrial processes such as cement production. Cement also absorbs CO₂ out of the atmosphere through carbonation, which reduces emissions by about 0.8 Gt per year and is included here.

CO₂ From Land-Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry

The main driver of these emissions is deforestation, which includes logging and forest degradation, as well as other land-use change activities. The emissions also take into account the absorption of CO₂ by processes that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, such as afforestation and reforestation. It is the net effect that is indicated here.

Methane (CH₄)

Methane emissions are caused by human activities such as rearing livestock, agricultural practices, and fugitive fossil fuel emissions.

Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)

Common sources of these emissions are fossil fuel emissions and the agricultural use of synthetic fertilizer and manure.

Fluorinated Gases (F-gases)

Fluorinated gases are a group of gases defined by UNFCCC: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). Fluorinated gases are also known as halogenated gases.

Key Take-Aways

Greenhouse gas emissions 2025: CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels continue a rising trend to an all-time high of 38.1 gigatonnes. Emissions from land-use drop slightly to 4.1 gigatonnes. Data for other greenhouse gases will be available later this year.
Compared to a world in which there would be no climate action, we have made some progress. For example, without renewable energy deployment, emissions to meet the growing energy demand would have been even higher in 2025.
However, compared to a world in which there was rapid, more ambitious climate action and deeper cuts to emissions, this assessment looks much less positive. Global emissions still have not peaked; in fact, they continue to rise. They could have been reduced by now.
IPCC benchmark: In its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science) stated that global greenhouse gas emissions would need to peak before 2025 to limit warming to around 1.5°C. While the full assessment of greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 is not yet complete, the initial projection of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and land use change, from the Global Carbon Project, suggests that emissions have continued to rise. If this is the case, then we may have already passed one of the key IPCC benchmarks.
Aerosols: As expected, the cooling aerosols continue to decline as a result of tackling air pollution, adding to the warming effect of greenhouse gases.

Units and Measures

CO₂-equivalent emissions are expressed in the total weight in gigatonnes per year.

Wikipedia: Gigatonne
Wikipedia: Global warming potential

About the Data

⚠️ Emissions marked as Unknown are published on a different cycle throughout the year and will be updated later this year.

The data is combined from three data sources:

Global Carbon Budget provides the CO₂ Fossil Fuels and Industry (CO₂ FFI) and CO₂ Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (CO₂ LULUCF)
IGCC provides data for methane and nitrous oxide since1970, and F-gases since 1990.
Primap-hist provides data for methane and nitrous oxide from 1850 to 1969, and F-gases from 1850 till 1989.

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Data Sources

IGCC Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence, Piers M. Forster et al.
Update cycle: yearlyDelay: Up to a yearCredits: Forster, P. M., Walsh, T., Smith, C., Lamb, W. F., Lamboll, R., Cassou, C., Hauser, M., Hausfather, Z., Lee, J.-Y., Palmer, M. D., von Schuckmann, K., Slangen, A. B. A., Szopa, S., Trewin, B., Yun, J., Gillett, N. P., Jenkins, S., Matthews, H. D., Raghavan, K., Ribes, A., Rogelj, J., Rosen, D., Zhang, X., Allen, M., Andrew, R. M., Atkinson, C., Betts, R. A., Bombelli, A., Burgess, S. N., Cheng, L., Claxton, H. E., Friedlingstein, P., Frölicher, T. L., Domingues, C. M., Gasser, T., Gregory, C. H., Hoesly, R. M., Huppmann, D., Ishii, M., Kadow, C., Karwat, A., Kennedy, J., Killick, R. E., Kovilakam, M. V. M., Krummel, P. B., Lan, X., Lamarque, J.-F., Liné, A., Martín-Míguez, B., Monselesan, D. P., Morice, C., Mühle, J., Mussak, P., Peters, G. P., Pirani, A., Pongratz, J., Rigby, M., Rohde, R., Savita, A., Seneviratne, S. I., Smith, S. J., Taha, G., Tassone, C., Thorne, P., Wells, C., Western, L. M., van der Werf, G. R., Wijffels, S. E., Zecchetto, M., Zhong, J., Zhang, X.-Y., Masson-Delmotte, V., and Zhai, P.: Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3889–3933, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3889-2026, 2026.

Global Carbon Budget 2025 Global Carbon Budget
Update cycle: yearlyDelay: ~ 10 months after end of a year. Current year values estimates published in November.Credits: Friedlingstein et al., 2025, ESSDReference: Friedlingstein, P., O'Sullivan, M., Jones, M. W., Andrew, R. M., Bakker, D. C. E., Hauck, J., Landschützer, P., Le Quéré, C., Li, H., Luijkx, I. T., Peters, G. P., Peters, W., Pongratz, J., Schwingshackl, C., Sitch, S., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., Aas, K., Alin, S. R., Anthoni, P., Barbero, L., Bates, N. R., Bellouin, N., Benoit-Cattin, A., Berghoff, C. F., Bernardello, R., Bopp, L., Brasika, I. B. M., Chamberlain, M. A., Chandra, N., Chevallier, F., Chini, L. P., Collier, N. O., Colligan, T. H., Cronin, M., Djeutchouang, L., Dou, X., Enright, M. P., Enyo, K., Erb, M., Evans, W., Feely, R. A., Feng, L., Ford, D. J., Foster, A., Fransner, F., Gasser, T., Gehlen, M., Gkritzalis, T., Goncalves De Souza, J., Grassi, G., Gregor, L., Gruber, N., Guenet, B., Gürses, Ö., Harrington, K., Harris, I., Heinke, J., Hurtt, G. C., Iida, Y., Ilyina, T., Ito, A., Jacobson, A. R., Jain, A. K., Jarníková, T., Jersild, A., Jiang, F., Jones, S. D., Kato, E., Keeling, R. F., Klein Goldewijk, K., Knauer, J., Kong, Y., Korsbakken, J. I., Koven, C., Kunimitsu, T., Lan, X., Liu, J., Liu, Z., Liu, Z., Lo Monaco, C., Ma, L., Marland, G., McGuire, P. C., McKinley, G. A., Melton, J., Monacci, N., Monier, E., Morgan, E. J., Munro, D. R., Müller, J. D., Nakaoka, S.-I., Nayagam, L. R., Niwa, Y., Nutzel, T., Olsen, A., Omar, A. M., Pan, N., Pandey, S., Pierrot, D., Qin, Z., Regnier, P. A. G., Rehder, G., Resplandy, L., Roobaert, A., Rosan, T. M., Rödenbeck, C., Schwinger, J., Skjelvan, I., Smallman, T. L., Spada, V., Sreeush, M. G., Sun, Q., Sutton, A. J., Sweeney, C., Swingedouw, D., Séférian, R., Takao, S., Tatebe, H., Tian, H., Tian, X., Tilbrook, B., Tsujino, H., Tubiello, F., van Ooijen, E., van der Werf, G., van de Velde, S. J., Walker, A., Wanninkhof, R., Yang, X., Yuan, W., Yue, X., and Zeng, J.: Global Carbon Budget 2025, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-659, in review, 2025.

PRIMAP-hist The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2024)
Update cycle: Every few monthsDelay: Less than 1 yearCredits: Gütschow, J.; Busch, D.; Pflüger, M. (2025): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.7 (1750-2024). zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17090760