Published 2026-07-26 · data 2023 · percent of global fossil CO₂
Who emits most CO₂ today
National shares of annual fossil CO₂. China, the US, and the EU dominate the grid — but per-capita stories differ.
Climate change is cumulative — every tonne of CO₂ emitted today adds to the warming already locked in. So who emits most right now matters. In 2023, three economies dominated global fossil CO₂: China 31%, the United States 14%, the European Union 9% — with the remaining 46% spread across the rest of the world. The grid below makes that concentration visible at a glance.
1 cell = 0.1 percent of global fossil CO₂ (0.1% of fossil CO₂ emissions) · 1,000 cells
Context
Annual shares aren't the whole story of responsibility. China's 31% of today's fossil CO₂ is far above its roughly 15% share of all CO₂ emitted since 1751, according to Our World in Data — a sign of how recently its emissions have grown.
Per person, the picture shifts again: the average person in China emitted about 8.7 tonnes of CO₂ in the latest data — a reminder that national totals scale with population size as much as with anything else.
Meanwhile, nearly half the grid — 46% — belongs to the rest of the world, so effective climate policy has to reach well beyond the three biggest emitters.
Global fossil CO₂ shares rounded to 1,000 cells (2023).
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-07-26-co2-emissions-share