Countries by Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions (total) excluding LULUCF (% change from 1990)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures the percentage change in total nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, excluding land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), from the 1990 baseline year to the data year 2024. Per the source definition: 'Change of emissions (as %) of current year with respect to emissions in baseline year 1990 emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from the agriculture, energy, waste, and industrial sectors, excluding LULUCF. The measure is standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors of IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5).' The unit is percent (%), and higher values indicate greater emissions growth relative to 1990. The dataset covers 203 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. Twelve extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year volatility was 48.0%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by small territories and fast-growing economies. The Turks and Caicos Islands ranks 1st at 4500%, followed by Brunei Darussalam at 934% (rank 2) and Chad at 727% (rank 3). Qatar (rank 4, +532%) and the Maldives (rank 5, +529%) also appear near the top. Among larger economies, India ranks 41st at +123%, Vietnam ranks 18th at +203%, and Pakistan ranks 30th at +154%. These high rankings reflect substantial increases in absolute N2O emissions relative to each country's 1990 level.

Many European and post-Soviet countries cluster near the bottom of the ranking, indicating N2O emissions in 2024 are below their 1990 levels. Germany ranks 200th at -54.5%, Ukraine ranks 202nd at -62.0%, and North Korea ranks 203rd at -71.7%. Notable mid-table placements include the United States at rank 153 (-3.5%) and Australia at rank 121 (+30.9%). The Russian Federation ranks 170th at -15.6%, while Canada ranks 148th at just +1.7%, placing both well below the global median despite their large land areas.

Several limitations apply to this metric. The percentage-change framing means countries with very small 1990 baseline emissions can show extreme percentage increases from modest absolute changes, which likely explains the Turks and Caicos Islands' 4500% value and the presence of 12 extreme outliers flagged in the data. The metric does not show absolute emission volumes, so a country with a large percentage increase may still emit less N2O in total than a country with a small percentage change. LULUCF emissions are explicitly excluded, meaning land-use-related N2O sources are not captured here. Comparability across countries may also be affected by differences in how agricultural and industrial sources are reported at the national level.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.N2O.ZG.AR5, for the data year 2024. The metric is defined as: 'Change of emissions (as %) of current year with respect to emissions in baseline year 1990 emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the six Kyoto greenhouse gases (GHG), from the agriculture, energy, waste, and industrial sectors, excluding LULUCF. The measure is standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors of IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5).' The ranking covers 203 countries, all of which have data from the last seven years (100% recency) and all datapoints are classified as official quality (100%). The full data range runs from -71.66% to 4500.00%, a spread of 6,379.3%. Twelve extreme outliers were identified using a 3-sigma threshold. Average year-over-year volatility across the dataset is 48.0%, just below the 50% caution threshold. No microstates under 1 million population are present in the dataset.

Sources

• World Bank