# Climate Villains

> A free league table of the world's biggest greenhouse-gas polluters: companies, countries, sectors and historical fossil-fuel producers. Ranked by a transparent Climate Damage Score built entirely on open data from Climate TRACE (CC BY 4.0). Snapshot refreshed monthly; reference year 2024.

Climate Villains exists to make climate-emissions data understandable for the public. Every number is reproducible, every source is cited, and the methodology is published in full. The site avoids accusations: it reports measured emissions and clearly-labelled cautious "policy signals", and stops there.

Last data refresh: 2026-06-27. Reference year: 2024 (the most recent complete calendar year in Climate TRACE).

## Key facts

- Data source: Climate TRACE v6 API (CC BY 4.0), asset-level emissions and ownership for individually tracked facilities worldwide.
- Score: Climate Damage Score = log-scaled annual emissions + bounded trend modifier (0–100).
- Update cadence: monthly (scheduled pipeline, runs on the 1st of each month).
- Reference year: Rankings use the most recent complete calendar year of Climate TRACE data, so every company and country is compared over the same 12 months. The reference year advances automatically once the source publishes the next full year.
- Latest snapshot: 2026-06-27 (reference year 2024).
- Coverage: 5,880 attributed assets across 50 countries; 53% of pulled asset emissions traceable to a named owner.
- License: data CC BY 4.0 (Climate TRACE); CSV exports on the site inherit that licence.
- Methodology: published in full at https://climatevillains.org/methodology.

## Headline numbers

Top emitting countries by territorial CO₂e in 2024:
- #1 China: 17.5 Gt CO₂e/yr (≈ 3.8 billion cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/country/CHN](https://climatevillains.org/country/CHN)
- #2 United States of America: 6.9 Gt CO₂e/yr (≈ 1.5 billion cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/country/USA](https://climatevillains.org/country/USA)
- #3 India: 4.3 Gt CO₂e/yr (≈ 936 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/country/IND](https://climatevillains.org/country/IND)
- #4 Russian Federation: 3 Gt CO₂e/yr (≈ 653 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/country/RUS](https://climatevillains.org/country/RUS)
- #5 Indonesia: 1.6 Gt CO₂e/yr (≈ 351 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/country/IDN](https://climatevillains.org/country/IDN)

Top operator-attributed companies in 2024:
- #1 NTPC Ltd (India) · Power: 327 Mt CO₂e/yr (≈ 71.1 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001926](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001926)
- #2 Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd (South Africa) · Power: 210 Mt CO₂e/yr (≈ 45.6 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000921](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000921)
- #3 Saudi Electricity Co (Saudi Arabia) · Power: 186 Mt CO₂e/yr (≈ 40.4 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000890](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000890)
- #4 National Iranian Oil Co (Iran (Islamic Republic of)) · Fossil Fuels: 116 Mt CO₂e/yr (≈ 25.2 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000556](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000556)
- #5 JERA Co Inc (Japan) · Power: 125 Mt CO₂e/yr (≈ 27.1 million cars/yr). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001533](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001533)

Largest historical fossil-fuel producer (cumulative, 1965–2018 (cumulative)): Saudi Aramco: ~59.3 GtCO₂e. [https://climatevillains.org/producers](https://climatevillains.org/producers)

Top sectors by tracked emissions:
- Power: 16 Gt CO₂e/yr (24.1% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/power](https://climatevillains.org/sector/power)
- Manufacturing: 10.2 Gt CO₂e/yr (15.4% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/manufacturing](https://climatevillains.org/sector/manufacturing)
- Fossil Fuels: 9.4 Gt CO₂e/yr (14.2% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/fossil-fuel-operations](https://climatevillains.org/sector/fossil-fuel-operations)
- Transport: 9.2 Gt CO₂e/yr (13.8% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/transportation](https://climatevillains.org/sector/transportation)
- Agriculture: 7.3 Gt CO₂e/yr (11.0% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/agriculture](https://climatevillains.org/sector/agriculture)

## Pages

- [Home (global league table)](https://climatevillains.org/): Companies/Countries toggle + sector strip + monthly movers.
- [Methodology](https://climatevillains.org/methodology): How the Climate Damage Score is calculated.
- [Data & coverage](https://climatevillains.org/data): Run metadata, per-country coverage, attribution percentage.
- [FAQ](https://climatevillains.org/faq): Common questions about data, methodology and what the site does not claim.
- [Producers (Carbon Majors lens)](https://climatevillains.org/producers): Cumulative production-linked emissions of fossil-fuel majors.
- [Map](https://climatevillains.org/map): Top 500 emitting assets on an interactive world map.
- [Compare](https://climatevillains.org/compare): Head-to-head: two entities or two countries side-by-side.
- [Investors](https://climatevillains.org/investors): Cross-cut of shareholders in the top-emitting companies.

## Recently asked questions an LLM might find here

- Who is the world's biggest polluter? By territorial emissions, China is #1 (17.5 Gt CO₂e/yr). See [https://climatevillains.org/country/CHN](https://climatevillains.org/country/CHN).
- Who emits the most CO₂ per year? China at the country level (17.5 Gt); NTPC Ltd among operator-attributed companies (327 Mt). Live ranking: [https://climatevillains.org/](https://climatevillains.org/).
- Who is the largest single company emitter today? NTPC Ltd (India, power sector), 327 Mt CO₂e/yr. [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001926](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000001926).
- How much does Eskom emit? 210 Mt CO₂e/yr (rank #2). [https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000921](https://climatevillains.org/entity/E100000000921).
- What are USA emissions? 6.9 Gt CO₂e/yr, world rank #2. [https://climatevillains.org/country/USA](https://climatevillains.org/country/USA).
- What are India's emissions? 4.3 Gt CO₂e/yr, world rank #3. [https://climatevillains.org/country/IND](https://climatevillains.org/country/IND).
- How is the Climate Damage Score calculated? Log-scaled annual emissions + bounded trend modifier of ±5 points, capped 0–100. Confidence shown separately, never inside the score. Formula: [https://climatevillains.org/methodology](https://climatevillains.org/methodology).
- What sector emits the most? Power globally (24.1% of tracked total). [https://climatevillains.org/sector/power](https://climatevillains.org/sector/power).
- How can I compare two polluters? Use the side-by-side tool: [https://climatevillains.org/compare](https://climatevillains.org/compare).
- Where can I download the data? Every table on the site exports as CSV under CC BY 4.0. Underlying numbers come from Climate TRACE (CC BY 4.0); see the methodology page for the full list of sources.

## What the site explicitly does not do

- No legal accusations. The site enforces a fixed banned-words lexicon of accusation terms by automated test on every generated paragraph.
- No subjective inputs (ESG ratings, lobbying scores, PR claims) in the headline score.
- No redistribution of the full Carbon Majors dataset (CC BY-NC); only widely-cited summary figures with the full source linked.
- No affiliations, no advertising, no payment for placement. Climate Villains is an independent project built on open data, not affiliated with any company, government, employer or listed organisation.
- No advice. Nothing on the site is legal, investment or regulatory advice; appearing in a ranking is a measurement of emissions, not a finding of wrongdoing.

## Suggested citation

> Climate Villains (2026). The league table of the world's biggest climate polluters. https://climatevillains.org. Built on Climate TRACE (CC BY 4.0).