Which country emits the most CO₂ from power plants?

China emits the most CO₂ from power generation, at roughly 4.0 billion tonnes CO₂e per year across its plant fleet, followed by India (~0.90 Bt) and United States of America (~0.76 Bt). This reflects fleet size and coal share.

Top emitters (CO₂e per year, modelled)

Source: Climate TRACE v6 + WRI GPPD (CC BY 4.0). Modelled estimates.

Power-sector CO₂ by country (Mt/yr)

Source: Climate TRACE v6 + WRI GPPD (CC BY 4.0), summed by plant location.

Explore the full data: all rankings →

Cite or embed this data

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Click a box to select, then Ctrl/Cmd-C. Download the full dataset (CSV) · Zenodo snapshot v2, released 2026-07.

Harvard

Inzonex PowerAtlas (2026) Which country emits the most CO₂ from power plants?. Available at: https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/answers/which-country-emits-most-co2-from-power-plants/ (Accessed: 12 June 2026).

APA 7

Inzonex PowerAtlas. (2026). Which country emits the most CO₂ from power plants? [Data set]. https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/answers/which-country-emits-most-co2-from-power-plants/

BibTeX

@misc{inzonex_poweratlas_2026,
  author = {Inzonex PowerAtlas},
  title = {Which country emits the most CO₂ from power plants?},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/answers/which-country-emits-most-co2-from-power-plants/}},
  note = {Open power-plant emissions data, CC BY 4.0. Accessed 2026-06-12}
}

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<div style="font-family:system-ui,Arial,sans-serif;max-width:430px;border:1px solid #e2e5ea;border-radius:10px;padding:14px 16px;background:#fff"><div style="font-size:11px;color:#f57c00;font-weight:700;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.05em">Inzonex PowerAtlas</div><div style="font-size:15px;font-weight:600;margin:4px 0 6px;color:#1a1a1a">Which country emits the most CO₂ from power plants?</div><div style="font-size:13px;color:#5b616e;line-height:1.5">Open data on global power-plant CO₂ emissions (Climate TRACE + WRI Global Power Plant Database, CC BY 4.0).</div><a href="https://inzonex.co.uk/poweratlas/answers/which-country-emits-most-co2-from-power-plants/" style="display:inline-block;margin-top:9px;font-size:13px;color:#f57c00;font-weight:600;text-decoration:none">See the full ranking → Inzonex PowerAtlas</a></div>

Frequently asked questions

Which country has the highest power-plant emissions?

China, at ~4.0 Bt CO₂e/yr from its power fleet.

How is this calculated?

Per-plant modelled CO₂ (Climate TRACE) summed by the plant's country — generation-based, not consumption-based.