Countries by Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Power Industry (Energy) (Mt CO2e)
China ranks 1st in nitrous oxide emissions from the power industry at 64.79 Mt CO2e, more than double the combined total of the next four ranked countries. At the other end, six countries including Iceland, Nepal, and Ethiopia record 0.00 Mt CO2e. The gap between the highest and lowest emitters spans nearly the full range of industrial power development.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric measures annual nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from the power sector, expressed in megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e). According to the source definition, it is 'a measure of annual emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from electricity and heat generation (subsector of the energy sector) including IPCC 2006 code 1.A.1.a. The measure is standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors of IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5).' Higher values indicate greater emissions and rank higher in this dataset. The data covers 194 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality. The dataset contains 20 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold, and the value range runs from 0.00 to 64.79, a spread of 999%.
China leads all countries by a wide margin at rank 1 with 64.79 Mt CO2e, nearly 2.6 times the value of India at rank 2 with 24.80 Mt CO2e. The United States ranks 3rd at 5.58 Mt CO2e, followed closely by Viet Nam at rank 4 with 5.36 Mt CO2e and the Philippines at rank 5 with 4.75 Mt CO2e. Korea (Rep.) ranks 6th at 2.83 Mt CO2e, Japan ranks 7th at 2.63 Mt CO2e, and Turkiye ranks 8th at 2.63 Mt CO2e. Indonesia ranks 9th at 2.52 Mt CO2e and the Russian Federation ranks 10th at 2.01 Mt CO2e. The top 10 countries account for the large majority of global power-sector N2O emissions captured in this dataset, reflecting the scale of coal-intensive electricity generation in these economies.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation. Poland ranks 11th at 1.90 Mt CO2e and Czechia ranks 14th at 1.09 Mt CO2e, both notably higher than much larger economies such as Brazil (rank 16, 0.92 Mt CO2e) and Mexico (rank 34, 0.23 Mt CO2e). Mongolia ranks 18th at 0.71 Mt CO2e and Zambia ranks 19th at 0.59 Mt CO2e, both ahead of countries with far larger economies. Botswana ranks 22nd at 0.46 Mt CO2e, ahead of the United Kingdom at rank 29 with 0.34 Mt CO2e and France at rank 33 with 0.24 Mt CO2e. At the lower end, 6 countries — Albania, Ethiopia, Gibraltar, Iceland, Kiribati, and Nepal — record 0.00 Mt CO2e, while 21 countries record values at or below 0.0001 Mt CO2e.
Several data limitations apply to this metric. The indicator covers only electricity and heat generation under IPCC code 1.A.1.a and does not capture N2O emissions from other energy subsectors, agriculture, or industrial processes, so total national N2O profiles may differ substantially from power-sector figures alone. Countries with very low reported values, including those at exactly 0.00, may reflect genuine low emissions or incomplete reporting rather than confirmed zero emissions. Territorial units such as Puerto Rico (rank 26), Hong Kong SAR (rank 59), New Caledonia (rank 51), and Macao SAR (rank 146) appear alongside sovereign states, which may complicate cross-country comparisons. The 20 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-sigma threshold, primarily the top-ranked emitters, can distort aggregate statistics and visual representations of the distribution.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.N2O.PI.MT.CE.AR5, with a reference year of 2024. The metric is defined as 'a measure of annual emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from electricity and heat generation (subsector of the energy sector) including IPCC 2006 code 1.A.1.a. 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 194 countries, all of which have data from within the last 7 years (100% recency). All 194 data points are classified as official quality (100%). The dataset contains 20 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and values range from 0.00 to 64.79 Mt CO2e, representing a 999% spread. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 20.3%, within the 50% volatility threshold. Higher values rank higher in this dataset, as the metric is treated as higher-is-better for ranking purposes in this context.