Building Energy CO₂ Emissions by Country in 2024

Carbon dioxide emissions from Building (Energy) measure annual CO₂ emissions associated with the building-related energy category used by the World Bank indicator EN.GHG.CO2.BU.MT.CE.AR5. The 2024 frame contains 217 economies and territories, with 193 numeric observations and 24 source-missing rows. Values are reported in Mt CO₂e, or million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent.

What Building (Energy) CO₂ emissions include

The source description identifies this as annual CO₂ emissions from the building subsector of energy and references IPCC 2006 categories 1.A.4 Residential and other sectors and 1.A.5 Non-Specified. It should therefore not be reduced to household heating alone. The indicator follows the sector boundary used by the World Bank source.

It is also not a measure of all national CO₂ emissions. Transport, electricity generation, industrial processes, and other emitting activities are represented in other categories. A country with high building-energy emissions does not necessarily have buildings as its largest overall source of carbon emissions.

The 2024 frame has 193 numeric values and 24 missing rows

The same-year frame contains 217 economies and territories. 193 have numeric observations and 24 have no 2024 source value. Missing values are left missing rather than converted to zero, and they are excluded from averages, rankings, and distribution counts.

Across the numeric observations, the simple mean is 16.92 Mt CO₂e while the median is only 1.076 Mt CO₂e. The first quartile is 0.1833 and the third quartile 7.19 Mt CO₂e. The large difference between the mean and median reflects a strongly right-skewed distribution.

China and the United States each exceed 500 Mt CO₂e

China records 586.64 Mt CO₂e and the United States 557.85 Mt CO₂e. The Russian Federation follows at 249.23, India at 210.24, and Iran, Islamic Rep. at 175.71 Mt CO₂e. Germany reaches 118.92 and Japan 103.80 Mt CO₂e, the other two observations above 100.

The sum of the 193 observed values is 3,264.77 Mt CO₂e. That is not a complete global total because 24 rows lack values. Within the observed sum, China accounts for about 18.0% and China plus the United States for about 35.1%.

The top five observations represent about 54.5% of the observed sum, and the top ten about 68.6%. This shows a high concentration of observed building-energy CO₂ emissions. These percentages use the 193-row observed sum as the denominator and should not be presented as shares of a fully complete world total.

The median is only 1.076 Mt CO₂e

The median of 1.076 Mt CO₂e is the middle value among the 193 numeric observations. It is far below the mean of 16.92 Mt CO₂e because a small number of very large emitters stretch the upper tail into the hundreds of megatonnes.

By band, 37 observations are below 0.1 Mt CO₂e, 58 are from 0.1 to below 1, 58 are from 1 to below 10, 28 are from 10 to below 50, and 12 are at least 50. The featured chart uses these bands so smaller economies remain visible despite the extreme scale difference.

The smallest observations are measured in thousandths of a megatonne

Dominica is lowest at 0.0067 Mt CO₂e, followed by British Virgin Islands at 0.0074, St. Vincent and the Grenadines at 0.0106, Kiribati and St. Kitts and Nevis at 0.0108, Grenada at 0.0141, and Sao Tome and Principe at 0.0152 Mt CO₂e.

Small absolute emissions can reflect population size, building stock, climate, energy demand, and fuel mix. Comparing small island economies with very large economies on an absolute-volume basis naturally embeds differences in scale. The ranking should therefore not be treated as a ranking of building efficiency.

Absolute emissions are different from per-capita emissions

This indicator is a national total. A large population can produce a high total even when emissions per person are moderate. A small economy can have a low total even if its buildings use carbon-intensive energy. Total volume and emissions intensity answer different questions.

A more direct comparison of building performance would need indicators such as building-energy CO₂ per person, energy use per square meter, heating and cooling demand, building-efficiency standards, and the carbon intensity of energy supply. The current measure is best used to compare the scale of the recorded sectoral emissions.

Direct fuel use and electricity-related emissions require careful scope matching

Building carbon emissions can be accounted for differently depending on whether direct on-site fuel combustion and indirect emissions from electricity are assigned to buildings or to electricity generation. The World Bank series follows its own Building (Energy) boundary, so it should not be assumed to include every indirect electricity emission associated with building use.

When comparing this series with another buildings dataset, the accounting boundary should be checked first. A dataset labeled ‘operational building emissions’ or ‘building electricity emissions’ can include a different combination of direct and indirect sources.

Why the source reports Mt CO₂e and references AR5

The source description states that the greenhouse-gas series is standardized to carbon-dioxide-equivalent values using Global Warming Potential factors from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. This particular indicator measures CO₂, but it is presented within that harmonized greenhouse-gas reporting framework in Mt CO₂e.

For comparisons with methane or nitrous-oxide indicators, the gas and the Global Warming Potential basis matter because equal physical masses do not translate into equal CO₂-equivalent values.

Complete 2024 frame of 217 economies and territories

The table below lists all 217 rows in the 2024 frame. The 24 source-missing rows are marked ‘No value’. Missing values are not replaced with zero and do not enter the numerical ranking or descriptive statistics.

How to interpret the comparison

First, this is a specific building-related energy CO₂ category rather than total national CO₂. Second, the measure is an absolute volume and is strongly affected by country scale. Third, the 24 missing rows must remain missing rather than being treated as zero. Fourth, the observed sum is not a complete global total.

Fifth, the indicator alone cannot identify why one country emits more than another. Climate, building stock, heating and cooling demand, energy efficiency, fuel mix, electricity systems, and economic structure can all matter. Sectoral energy-use and building-efficiency data are needed for a causal or policy analysis.

Source and calculation

The source is World Bank World Development Indicators EN.GHG.CO2.BU.MT.CE.AR5, Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Building (Energy) (Mt CO2e). The mean, median, quartiles, emission bands, and rankings are calculated from the 193 numeric observations in the fixed 2024 frame; 24 source-missing rows are excluded.

Frequently Asked Questions

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