Per capita CO2 emissions have peaked globally, but total emissions are still increasing

To tackle climate change, the world needs to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. But before we reduce emissions, we need to stop them rising; the world needs to pass the peak.

Globally, total CO2 emissions are still slowly increasing. The Global Carbon Project just released its preliminary estimates for 2024, which suggest another 0.8% increase.

However, while total emissions have not yet peaked, emissions per person have. Globally, per capita CO2 emissions from fossil fuels peaked in 2012. When land use emissions — which are more uncertain and noisier — are included, they peaked in the 1970s and have fluctuated since then. You can see both trends in the chart.

This suggests that, globally, lifestyles are slowly decarbonizing. However, to come closer to our global climate targets, economies must decarbonize much faster to push total emissions into decline.

Explore the latest CO2 emissions data in our updated charts →

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Per capita CO2 emissions have peaked globally, but total emissions are still increasing” by Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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