SECTOR PROFILE · 2024
Waste
≈ 444 million cars/yr2.0 Gt = gigatonne: one billion tonnes of CO₂-equivalent CO₂e/yr3.1% of global tracked
The worst emitters in waste: countries and companies, side-by-side.
- What is it?
- Landfills, incinerators and wastewater treatment plants.
- Why does it emit?
- Decomposing rubbish and sewage produce methane; incineration releases CO₂ from the carbon in waste.
- What’s it equivalent to?
- That’s about 444 million cars driven for a year.
About this sector
The league tables below rank both the countries where this sector is largest and the companies whose biggest attributed sector is waste. Totals come from Climate TRACE’s open dataset and refresh whenever the pipeline runs.
2 Gt = gigatonne: one billion tonnes of CO₂-equivalentAnnual total49Countries ranked0Companies ranked
Top countries in this sector
1China= 85.2M cars/yr392 Mt CO₂eNEW2USA= 34.6M cars/yr159 Mt CO₂eNEW3India= 34.1M cars/yr157 Mt CO₂eNEW4Russia= 25.9M cars/yr119 Mt CO₂eNEW5Brazil= 19.3M cars/yr88.7 Mt CO₂eNEW6Mexico= 14.9M cars/yr68.4 Mt CO₂eNEW7Turkey= 14.7M cars/yr67.5 Mt CO₂eNEW8Indonesia= 9.3M cars/yr42.6 Mt CO₂eNEW9Pakistan= 7.9M cars/yr36.5 Mt CO₂eNEW10Nigeria= 7.7M cars/yr35.6 Mt CO₂eNEW
Show all countries (49)
11Bangladesh= 5.7M cars/yr26.3 Mt CO₂eNEW12Colombia= 5.1M cars/yr23.6 Mt CO₂eNEW13France= 5.1M cars/yr23.5 Mt CO₂eNEW14Australia= 5.1M cars/yr23.3 Mt CO₂eNEW15South Africa= 4.9M cars/yr22.6 Mt CO₂eNEW16Canada= 4.9M cars/yr22.5 Mt CO₂eNEW17Spain= 4.5M cars/yr20.9 Mt CO₂eNEW18Thailand= 4.3M cars/yr19.7 Mt CO₂eNEW19Algeria= 4.2M cars/yr19.5 Mt CO₂eNEW20Egypt= 4.2M cars/yr19.5 Mt CO₂eNEW21Viet Nam= 4.1M cars/yr19 Mt CO₂eNEW22Japan= 4.1M cars/yr18.8 Mt CO₂eNEW23Saudi Arabia= 3.9M cars/yr17.8 Mt CO₂eNEW24Philippines= 3.7M cars/yr17.2 Mt CO₂eNEW25Iran= 3.6M cars/yr16.7 Mt CO₂eNEW26Germany= 3.5M cars/yr16 Mt CO₂eNEW27Italy= 3.4M cars/yr15.8 Mt CO₂eNEW28South Korea= 3.3M cars/yr15.1 Mt CO₂eNEW29UK= 3.1M cars/yr14.4 Mt CO₂eNEW30Ukraine= 3.1M cars/yr14.3 Mt CO₂eNEW31Argentina= 3.1M cars/yr14.1 Mt CO₂eNEW32Iraq= 3.1M cars/yr14.1 Mt CO₂eNEW33Ethiopia= 2.8M cars/yr13 Mt CO₂eNEW34Malaysia= 2.5M cars/yr11.7 Mt CO₂eNEW35Poland= 2.5M cars/yr11.5 Mt CO₂eNEW36Uzbekistan= 2.4M cars/yr10.8 Mt CO₂eNEW37Kuwait= 2.1M cars/yr9.6 Mt CO₂eNEW38Sudan= 2M cars/yr9.4 Mt CO₂eNEW39Tanzania= 1.7M cars/yr8 Mt CO₂eNEW40Venezuela= 1.7M cars/yr7.8 Mt CO₂eNEW41UAE= 1.5M cars/yr6.7 Mt CO₂eNEW42Kazakhstan= 1.4M cars/yr6.7 Mt CO₂eNEW43Taiwan= 1.4M cars/yr6.4 Mt CO₂eNEW44Netherlands= 1.1M cars/yr4.9 Mt CO₂eNEW45Libya= 624k cars/yr2.9 Mt CO₂eNEW46Turkmenistan= 439k cars/yr2 Mt CO₂eNEW47Oman= 406k cars/yr1.9 Mt CO₂eNEW48Qatar= 386k cars/yr1.8 Mt CO₂eNEW49Mongolia= 192k cars/yr884.4 kt CO₂eNEW
Where this comes from
Climate TRACE · CC BY 4.0