CO2 Emissions From Deforestation and Land Use by Country 2024

What this chart shows. The 20 countries with the largest net CO2 emissions from land-use change in 2024, mainly deforestation, in millions of tonnes. Brazil led with 1,600 million tonnes, 34.9 per cent of the world's 4,586, followed by DR Congo with 648 and Indonesia with 576.

How the data is collected. The Global Carbon Budget estimates these net emissions with bookkeeping models: carbon released when forests are cleared or burned, minus carbon taken up by regrowing forests on the same land. In 64 countries the result was negative, meaning more uptake than release, so they are not shown.

Background. In Brazil land-use emissions were 3.3 times its fossil-fuel emissions, and 12 of the 20 countries emitted more from land use than from fossil fuels. The European Commission's EDGAR inventory, which counts gross deforestation emissions differently, also puts Brazil, DR Congo and Indonesia in its top three.

Limits. Land-use emissions are the most uncertain part of the carbon budget, and a single year can be affected by fires and droughts. These are net figures for 2024 only.