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🇺🇾 Uruguay's Yearly Greenhouse Gas Emissions in CO₂ Equivalent

Uruguay's Yearly Greenhouse Gas Emissions in CO₂ Equivalent

Key Insights

2024 Emissions Profile

In 2024, methane was Uruguay's largest emission gas at around 25.2 megatonnes CO2e, or 57.8% of the national total. CO2 contributed around 10.5 megatonnes CO2 (24.2%), nitrous oxide 7.6 megatonnes CO2e (17.4%), and F-gases 0.25 megatonnes CO2e (0.6%). Over the ten years to 2024, CO2 and methane declined, while nitrous oxide and F-gases increased; emissions were therefore concentrated in methane, with CO2 and nitrous oxide making up most of the remainder.

Historic Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions

CO2 emissions rose from roughly 4 megatonnes CO2 in 1851 to nearly 19 in the mid-1890s, then eased to around 15 by 1958. They fell sharply to near zero in the mid-1970s, dipping below zero in 1985. Emissions later climbed to a peak of roughly 29 megatonnes CO2 in 2008 before falling to around 10.5 in 2024.

Historic Methane (CH4) Emissions

Methane emissions rose steadily from about 0.9 megatonnes CO2e in 1851 to roughly 22 by 1980. They then fluctuated around 20 to 23 through the 1980s and 1990s, before increasing again to a peak of around 26 megatonnes CO2e in 2016. They ended at approximately 25.2 megatonnes CO2e in 2024. Methane's warming contribution since 1851 was around 23% larger than its emissions alone suggest, because methane's short atmospheric lifetime amplifies the warming impact when CH4 emissions are rising.

Historic Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Emissions

Nitrous oxide emissions began at around 0.1 megatonnes CO2e in 1851 and remained low until the early twentieth century. They rose rapidly from about 1.2 in 1940 to roughly 5.6 by 1960, then increased more gradually. Emissions peaked at around 7.7 megatonnes CO2e in 2021 and were about 7.6 in 2024.

Historic Fluorinated Gases (F-gases) Emissions

F-gas emissions were negligible until around the turn of the century. They rose after 2001 but fluctuated sharply, briefly reaching zero in 2012 and peaking at around 0.33 megatonnes CO2e in 2014. They ended at approximately 0.25 megatonnes CO2e in 2024.

Background

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.

  • Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
  • 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.

Wikipedia: Global Warming Potential

Total Historic Share

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.

Crabon Dioxide (CO2)

CO2 includes emissions from fossil fuels and industry (FFI), and from land-use, land-use-change, and forestry (LULUCF).

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.

Wikipedia: Greenhouse Gas Emissions
 IPCC: Annual Report 6, 5.2.1 5.2 Historical Trends, Variability and Budgets of CO2, CH4 and N2O

Units and Measures

CO2-equivalent emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.

Wikipedia: Megatonne
 Wikipedia: Global warming potential

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About the Data

National CO2 emissions data through 2024 is from the Global Carbon Project and covers fossil sources and land-use change. Emissions data through 2024 for CH4, N2O and F-gases comes from the PRIMAP-hist dataset, which combines several published sources into historical emissions time series.

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.

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

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