Republic of Korea's Sources of CO2 Emissions
Key Insights
2024 CO2 Emissions Profile
In 2024, Republic of Korea's CO2 emissions totalled around 577 megatonnes CO2e. Coal was largest at roughly 247 megatonnes CO2 (42.9%), followed by oil at around 176 megatonnes CO2 (30.5%), gas at about 129 megatonnes CO2 (22.4%), and other fossil sources at nearly 31 megatonnes CO2 (5.3%). Land-use was a net removal of around 6.5 megatonnes CO2. Over the ten years to 2024, coal, oil and other fossil emissions declined, while gas rose by about 4.1 megatonnes CO2 per year. Coal and oil dominated emissions, with gas a substantial and growing source.
Historic Coal Emissions
Coal emissions were negligible in the early twentieth century, but began rising more noticeably after the early 1950s, from around 3 megatonnes CO2 to roughly 133 megatonnes CO2 by 1997. Growth then accelerated, reaching a peak of about 340 megatonnes CO2 in 2018, before declining to around 247 megatonnes CO2 in 2024.
Historic Oil Emissions
Oil emissions remained low until the 1960s, then climbed rapidly through the following decades, rising from around 4 megatonnes CO2 in 1963 to roughly 207 megatonnes CO2 in 1994. They peaked at about 246 megatonnes CO2 in 1997, then varied at lower levels overall, ending at around 176 megatonnes CO2 in 2024.
Historic Gas Emissions
Gas emissions were close to zero through the 1980s, reaching only around 6 megatonnes CO2 in 1989. They then rose steadily and substantially, increasing throughout the period after 1989. Gas emissions reached their highest level, around 129 megatonnes CO2, in 2024.
Historic Land-use Emissions
Land-use emissions were small but variable from the mid-nineteenth century, alternating between modest emissions and net removals. They rose to a peak of roughly 13 megatonnes CO2 in 1927, then trended downward over the long term. Land-use became a net removal, reaching around negative 6.5 megatonnes CO2 in 2024.
Historic Other Fossil Emissions
Other fossil emissions were negligible until the mid-1960s, then increased from around 0.8 megatonnes CO2 to about 31 megatonnes CO2 by 1994. They subsequently fluctuated within a narrower range, peaking at roughly 37 megatonnes CO2 in 2017. Other fossil emissions ended at around 31 megatonnes CO2 in 2024.
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.