Countries by Methane (CH4) emissions from Industrial Combustion (Energy) (Mt CO2e)
India ranks 1st in methane emissions from industrial combustion with 4.3877 Mt CO2e, followed by China at 3.8999 Mt CO2e and Brazil at 2.3739 Mt CO2e. At the other end, 11 countries including Antigua and Barbuda, Eritrea, and Kiribati register exactly zero. The gap between the top and bottom of this ranking spans nearly the entire range of the dataset.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric measures annual methane (CH4) emissions from industrial combustion, a subsector of the energy sector. Per the source definition, it covers IPCC 2006 code 1.A.2 Manufacturing Industries and Construction, and values are standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent using Global Warming Potential factors from the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5). The unit is megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e), and higher values indicate greater emissions. Data covers 193 countries, all with data from the last seven years, with 100% of datapoints classified as official quality. The dataset identified 37 extreme outliers using a 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year change is 10.1%, well within the 50% volatility threshold.
India (Rank 1, 4.3877 Mt CO2e) and China (Rank 2, 3.8999 Mt CO2e) together account for a combined value exceeding all other ranked countries. Brazil holds Rank 3 at 2.3739 Mt CO2e, a notable gap below the top two. The United States (Rank 4, 1.5402 Mt CO2e) and Indonesia (Rank 5, 0.7499 Mt CO2e) round out the top five. Russia (Rank 6, 0.4996 Mt CO2e) and Viet Nam (Rank 7, 0.4864 Mt CO2e) follow closely. Countries with large manufacturing and construction sectors tend to appear at or near the top of this ranking.
Several counterintuitive placements appear in the middle of the ranking. Uganda (Rank 10, 0.2833 Mt CO2e) ranks higher than Canada (Rank 11, 0.2499 Mt CO2e) and Germany (Rank 12, 0.2198 Mt CO2e). Sweden (Rank 13, 0.2019 Mt CO2e) outranks Pakistan (Rank 14, 0.1976 Mt CO2e). Gabon (Rank 24, 0.1004 Mt CO2e) places above Mexico (Rank 25, 0.0973 Mt CO2e) and the United Kingdom (Rank 30, 0.078 Mt CO2e). At the lower end, 20 countries record values of 0.0001 Mt CO2e (Ranks 163-182), and 11 countries record exactly zero (Rank 183).
A key limitation of this metric is that it captures only industrial combustion within manufacturing industries and construction, excluding other energy subsectors and non-energy methane sources such as agriculture or waste. Countries with large informal manufacturing sectors may underreport emissions. Reported values depend on the quality of national inventory systems, which vary across countries. The 37 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-sigma level suggest that a small number of country values diverge substantially from the global distribution, and the range from 0.00 to 4.39 Mt CO2e (a 999% spread) means that mid-table differences in rank may correspond to very small absolute differences in emissions.
Methodology
Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.CH4.IC.MT.CE.AR5, with a reference year of 2024. The metric is defined as: a measure of annual emissions of methane (CH4), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from industrial combustion (subsector of the energy sector) including IPCC 2006 code 1.A.2 Manufacturing Industries and Construction. 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 reported in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e). The dataset covers 193 countries, all of which have data from within the last seven years (100% recency), with 100% of datapoints classified as official quality. The viability checks identified 37 extreme outliers using a 3-sigma threshold. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 10.1%. The value range spans 0.00 to 4.39 Mt CO2e, representing a 999% spread. Higher values indicate greater methane emissions from this subsector.