Countries by Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Building (Energy) (Mt CO2e)
China ranks first in CO2 emissions from buildings at 586.64 Mt CO2e, fractionally ahead of the United States at 557.85 Mt CO2e. At the other end, Dominica records just 0.0067 Mt CO2e, rank 193 of 193. The gap between the top and bottom spans more than 8.7 million percent, reflecting the combined weight of population size, climate, and energy infrastructure.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric measures annual CO2 emissions from the building sector, defined as IPCC 2006 codes 1.A.4 Residential and other sectors and 1.A.5 Non-Specified. Values are standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent using Global Warming Potential factors from IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5). Figures are expressed in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e), where a higher value indicates greater absolute emissions. Data cover 193 countries from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator EN.GHG.CO2.BU.MT.CE.AR5), with all 193 countries reporting data from the last seven years and 100% of datapoints classified as official quality. The dataset contains 27 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the value range runs from 0.01 to 586.64 Mt CO2e.
The top of the ranking is dominated by large economies with cold climates or high energy demand. China (rank 1, 586.64 Mt CO2e) and the United States (rank 2, 557.85 Mt CO2e) are separated by fewer than 29 Mt CO2e, making them by far the two largest emitters. The Russian Federation ranks third at 249.23 Mt CO2e, followed by India at 210.24 Mt CO2e (rank 4) and Iran at 175.71 Mt CO2e (rank 5). Germany (rank 6, 118.92 Mt CO2e) and Japan (rank 7, 103.80 Mt CO2e) are the only other countries above 100 Mt CO2e. Canada (rank 8, 89.27 Mt CO2e) and the United Kingdom (rank 9, 74.58 Mt CO2e) round out the top ten alongside Turkiye (rank 10, 72.69 Mt CO2e).
Several notable patterns appear in the middle and lower ranges of the ranking. Iran at rank 5 (175.71 Mt CO2e) surpasses Germany and Japan, placing it well above most European nations. Turkmenistan ranks 23rd at 29.53 Mt CO2e, higher than Spain (rank 24, 28.60 Mt CO2e), despite its far smaller economy and population. Saudi Arabia ranks only 53rd at 5.30 Mt CO2e, below countries such as Tunisia (rank 55, 4.72 Mt CO2e) and the Kyrgyz Republic (rank 56, 4.59 Mt CO2e). The United Arab Emirates ranks 112th at just 0.66 Mt CO2e, lower than Uganda (rank 111, 0.675 Mt CO2e). In the bottom tier, 30 countries record values below 0.10 Mt CO2e, and the lowest five — Dominica (0.0067), British Virgin Islands (0.0074), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (0.0106), St. Kitts and Nevis (0.0108), and Kiribati (0.0108) — are all small island territories.
This metric captures only CO2 from the building subsector of energy and does not include other greenhouse gases from buildings, nor does it cover emissions embedded in building materials or construction activity. Absolute values favor large countries by population and land area, making direct comparisons between countries of vastly different sizes difficult to interpret without per-capita or intensity adjustments. The 27 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold may reflect genuine scale differences rather than reporting errors, but users should treat the top and bottom ranks with awareness of this statistical context. Reporting methodologies can also vary across countries, and the indicator's reliance on IPCC 2006 coding conventions means that boundary definitions for 'residential and other sectors' may be applied inconsistently across national inventories.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.CO2.BU.MT.CE.AR5, for the reference year 2024. The metric is defined as: a measure of annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from the building sector (subsector of the energy sector) including IPCC 2006 codes 1.A.4 Residential and other sectors, 1.A.5 Non-Specified. The measure is standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors of IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5). Values are expressed in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e). The ranking covers 193 countries, all of which have data from within the last seven years (100% recency) and all of which are classified as official-quality datapoints (100%). The dataset shows 27 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. The value range spans 0.01 to 586.64 Mt CO2e, a spread of approximately 8,755,781%. Average year-over-year volatility is 9.7%, well within the 50% acceptability threshold.