Brazil's Sources of CO2 Emissions
Key Insights
2024 CO2 Emissions Profile
Brazil's CO2 emissions totalled around 2,020 megatonnes CO2e in 2024. Land-use dominated, at roughly 1,540 megatonnes CO2 or 76.1% of national emissions, rising by about 35.4 megatonnes CO2 per year over the ten years to 2024. Oil contributed around 324 megatonnes CO2 (16.0%) and was broadly stable. Gas and coal each declined, to about 59 megatonnes CO2 (2.9%) and 51 megatonnes CO2 (2.5%); other fossil emissions reached roughly 49 megatonnes CO2 (2.4%) and edged upward.
Historic Coal Emissions
Coal emissions were low in the mid-1850s, at around 0.2 megatonnes CO2, and rose gradually to roughly 9 megatonnes CO2 by 1968. They then climbed strongly, peaking at about 69 megatonnes CO2 in 2015, before declining overall. In 2024, coal emissions were around 51 megatonnes CO2.
Historic Oil Emissions
Oil emissions were negligible in the early twentieth century, though they briefly reached around 0.2 megatonnes CO2 in 1940. They rose rapidly after the late 1940s, reaching roughly 163 megatonnes CO2 by 1992 and peaking at about 357 megatonnes CO2 in 2014. In 2024, emissions were around 324 megatonnes CO2.
Historic Gas Emissions
Gas emissions were near zero in the early twentieth century and remained small until late in the century, reaching roughly 7 megatonnes CO2 by 1990. They increased thereafter, peaking at about 81 megatonnes CO2 in 2014, then fell back despite fluctuations. In 2024, gas emissions were around 59 megatonnes CO2.
Historic Land-use Emissions
Land-use emissions began at around 32 megatonnes CO2 in 1851 and varied as they rose, reaching roughly 386 megatonnes CO2 in 1929. They then climbed steeply from the 1940s to a peak of about 2,893 megatonnes CO2 in 2003. Emissions subsequently fell, dipping near 1,238 megatonnes CO2 in 2017, before recovering to around 1,537 megatonnes CO2 in 2024.
Historic Other Fossil Emissions
Other fossil emissions were negligible in the late 1920s, at about 0.04 megatonnes CO2, but rose to roughly 3 megatonnes CO2 by the early 1960s. Growth continued through the following decades, reaching close to 50 megatonnes CO2 and peaking at about 49.7 megatonnes CO2 in 2023. In 2024, emissions were around 49 megatonnes CO2.
Background
The chart shows a national breakdown by source of the yearly CO2 emissions from human activities and processes expressed in megatonnes. It is critical to know and track the sources of national CO2 emissions in order to understand their individual impacts on climate change.
The sources of human CO2 emissions are
- CO2 From Fossil Fuels and Industry: coal, oil, gas combustion, other fossil processes
- CO2 From Land-Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry
Coal, oil and gas combustion
Fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal, oil and gas are emitted by processes in electricity generation, transport, industry, and the building sector. All processes can be linked to human activities. Examples include driving cars with combustion engines burning diesel or gas, or electric cars charged by electricity from a power plant that burns coal.
Other fossil processes
Fossil CO2 emissions from other processes include sources like cement manufacturing and production of chemicals and fertilizers. Cement also has an absorption factor highlighted in the absorption breakdown chart.
Land-use change
Human civilization emits CO2 by changing and managing its land. Those emissions come, for example, from deforestation, logging, forest degradation, harvest activities and shifting agriculture cultivation. Land-use change also absorbs considerable amounts of CO2, which is shown in the absorption breakdown chart. Land-use change emits more than it absorbs, so the net effect is still emissions, but less than for coal, oil and gas.
Wikipedia: Greenhouse Gas EmissionsEarth System Science Data: GCP 2020 paper: Section 2.2 Land-use change; Section 2.1 Fossil fuel emissions
IPCC: Annual Report 6, 5.2.1.1 Anthropogenic CO2 emissions
Units and Measures
CO2 emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.
Wikipedia: MegatonneWikipedia: Global warming potential
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National CO2 emissions data through 2024 is from the Global Carbon Project and covers fossil sources and land-use change.
The Key Insights paragraph was created using a large language model (LLM) in combination with our data, historic events, and a structured approach for best accuracy by separating the context generation from the interpretation and narrative.
Data Sources
Global Carbon Budget 2025 Global Carbon Budget
Update cycle: yearlyDelay: ~ 10 months after the end of the year. Current year values are estimated and published in November.Credits: 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.