Countries by Methane (CH4) emissions from Industrial Processes (Mt CO2e)
China ranks first in methane emissions from industrial processes with 7.5991 Mt CO2e, a figure nearly 7.4 times larger than second-ranked United States at 1.022 Mt CO2e. At the other end, 17 countries including Bangladesh, Denmark, Iraq, and Pakistan record values of exactly 0 Mt CO2e. The gap between the top and bottom of this ranking reflects the extreme concentration of industrial methane output in a small number of economies.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric measures annual methane (CH4) emissions from industrial processes, expressed in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e) using AR5 global warming potentials. The source definition covers emissions from IPCC 2006 codes 2.A.1 Cement production, 2.A.2 Lime production, 2.A.3 Glass Production, 2.A.4 Other Process Uses of Carbonates, 2.B Chemical Industry, 2.C Metal Industry, 2.D Non-Energy Products from Fuels and Solvent Use, 2.E Electronics Industry, 2.F Product Uses as Substitutes for Ozone Depleting Substances, and related subcategories. The dataset covers 94 countries, all with data from the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The data year is 2024, drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators under indicator code EN.GHG.CH4.IP.MT.CE.AR5. Higher values indicate greater absolute methane output from these industrial sources.
China dominates the top of the ranking at 7.5991 Mt CO2e, more than seven times the value of second-ranked United States at 1.022 Mt CO2e. Saudi Arabia ranks third at 0.7887 Mt CO2e, followed by Oman at 0.591 Mt CO2e and the Russian Federation at 0.5148 Mt CO2e. India ranks sixth at 0.4561 Mt CO2e and Iran seventh at 0.4266 Mt CO2e. The top ten also includes Indonesia (rank 8, 0.3506 Mt CO2e), Trinidad and Tobago (rank 9, 0.2947 Mt CO2e), and South Korea (rank 10, 0.2862 Mt CO2e). The presence of major petrochemical producers and large industrial economies characterizes the upper portion of the ranking.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation in scale. Germany ranks 12th at 0.2334 Mt CO2e and Japan 11th at 0.2676 Mt CO2e, placing major industrialized economies well below the top tier. Norway ranks 18th at 0.0996 Mt CO2e, ahead of Qatar at 0.0927 Mt CO2e (rank 19) and the Netherlands at 0.0867 Mt CO2e (rank 20). Notably, Singapore ranks 21st at 0.0803 Mt CO2e, a value higher than Mexico (rank 22, 0.0737 Mt CO2e) and Australia (rank 41, 0.0216 Mt CO2e). Georgia and Zimbabwe share rank 48 with identical values of 0.0122 Mt CO2e. Seventeen countries at ranks 78 through 94 report zero emissions under this indicator, suggesting either genuine absence of covered industrial activity or reporting gaps.
A key limitation is the lower boundary of the data: 17 countries report exactly 0 Mt CO2e, which may reflect true absence of qualifying industrial activity, rounding of very small values, or incomplete national reporting rather than confirmed zero emissions. The viability check identified 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, with China's value of 7.5991 Mt CO2e being the most prominent, producing a range spread of 999%. This concentration at the top can distort comparisons across the rest of the distribution. The metric also covers only a defined subset of industrial process categories and does not include methane from energy combustion, agriculture, or waste, so it cannot be used to represent total national methane output. Countries with limited statistical capacity may underreport emissions across one or more IPCC subcategories.
Methodology
Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.CH4.IP.MT.CE.AR5, for the data year 2024. The metric measures annual emissions of methane (CH4), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from industrial processes including IPCC 2006 codes 2.A.1 Cement production, 2.A.2 Lime production, 2.A.3 Glass Production, 2.A.4 Other Process Uses of Carbonates, 2.B Chemical Industry, 2.C Metal Industry, 2.D Non-Energy Products from Fuels and Solvent Use, 2.E Electronics Industry, 2.F Product Uses as Substitutes for Ozone Depleting Substances, and related subcategories. Values are expressed in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e) using AR5 global warming potentials. The ranking covers 94 countries, all of which have data from within the last 7 years (100% recency), and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The viability checks identified 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold; the value range spans 0.00 to 7.60 Mt CO2e, a spread of 999%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 9.9%. No microstates (population below 1 million) are present in the 94-country set. Countries reporting exactly zero should be interpreted with caution, as this may reflect rounding, absence of qualifying activity, or incomplete sub-category reporting.