Countries

United Kingdom

CO2 from fossil fuels and industry produced in United Kingdom (territorial emissions; land-use change is not included). The figures below are for 2022, the latest year with total, per-person and per-GDP figures for at least 150 countries.

2022 at a glance

Total
311 million tonnes20th of 164 countries in 2022
Per person
4.56 tonnes55th of 164 countries in 2022
Per unit of GDP
0.119 kg per international dollar (2011 prices, PPP)135th of 164 countries in 2022

In 2024, the latest year with a total, United Kingdom emitted 313 million tonnes.

The trend

CO2 emissions, United Kingdom, 1950 to 2024

CO2 from fossil fuels and industry in United Kingdom was 313 million tonnes in 2024, 48% less than in 1990. The highest yearly total between 1950 and 2024 was 660 million tonnes, in 1971.

Show the data as a table
Every fifth year and the latest
YearMillion tonnes
1950499
1955576
1960584
1965622
1970653
1975603
1980579
1985560
1990602
1995566
2000569
2005570
2010512
2015422
2020326
2024313

By source, 2022

OWID splits CO2 by the fuel or process it comes from, not by economic sector. The published parts add up to 311 million tonnes of the 311 million tonne total.

CO2 by source, United Kingdom, 2022, million tonnes
SourceMillion tonnes
Coal20.0
Oil146
Gas135
Cement4.05
Gas flaring3.20
Other industry2.52

Compared with

Sources and licences

  • Our World in Data, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (owid-co2-data.csv): countries from 1950. Our World in Data, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions), based on the Global Carbon Budget (2025), the Maddison Project Database 2023 (Bolt and van Zanden) and OWID's population series. Retrieved 16 October 2026. CC BY 4.0 for Our World in Data's own work; data produced by third parties keeps its source's terms (OWID's co2-data README). CO2: Global Carbon Budget (2025); GDP: Maddison Project Database 2023; population: OWID's population series. Terms, full data file. Changes: Countries only (rows with a three-letter ISO code), years from 1950, and the columns iso_code, country, year, population, co2, co2_per_capita, co2_per_gdp and the CO2 by source (coal, oil, gas, cement, flaring, other industry); values and row order as published; LF line endings.

Our chart is licensed CC BY 4.0: share it with a credit and a link. The data keep their sources' terms, and no endorsement is implied.

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