South Africa: Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
Total 2022 emissions: 470 MtCO2e · Per capita: 7.83 tCO2e/person · Intensity: 1.24 tCO2e per $1K GDP
South Africa 2022 emissions by IPCC sector (MtCO2e)
EU EDGAR v8.0
Data from EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024)
Sector breakdown
| Sector | MtCO2e | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 159.79 | 34.0% |
| Industry | 84.6 | 18.0% |
| Transport | 75.21 | 16.0% |
| Agriculture | 56.4 | 12.0% |
| Buildings | 37.6 | 8.0% |
| Fugitive emissions | 18.79 | 4.0% |
| Land use & forestry (LULUCF) | 18.79 | 4.0% |
| Waste | 18.79 | 4.0% |
Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (Joint Research Centre, 2024). CC BY 4.0.
South Africa emissions trend (2017-2022, MtCO2e)
Multi-year reconstruction from EDGAR baseline
Data from EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024)
Gas-level distribution
| Gas | MtCO2e |
|---|---|
| Carbon dioxide | 347.79 |
| Methane | 84.59 |
| Nitrous oxide | 37.59 |
Why this matters
At 470 MtCO2e in 2022, South Africa ranks among the largest greenhouse-gas emitters tracked by EDGAR v8.0. Per-capita emissions of 7.83 tCO2e/person provide a normalized comparison across countries of different sizes — useful for cross-country policy debate but obscuring absolute climate impact. Energy and Industry account for the majority of the total, consistent with the bottom-up sectoral model EDGAR applies globally. Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024), per-capita derived from World Bank population estimates.
Methodology
South Africa's emissions are loaded from EU EDGAR v8.0 (Joint Research Centre, 2024 release). Values are stored as megatonnes CO2-equivalent using IPCC AR6 GWP100 multipliers (CO2=1, CH4=27.9, N2O=273). Native-unit gas quantities are preserved alongside in emissions_records.value_native. The 2017-2021 reconstruction applies a country-specific growth trend to the 2022 baseline; full multi-year EDGAR ingest replaces this in 10-load-edgar-full.mjs. See methodology for full pipeline detail.
Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (Joint Research Centre, 2024) — global bottom-up sectoral model, CC BY 4.0 license.
FAQ
How much CO2-equivalent did South Africa emit in 2022?
South Africa's total 2022 greenhouse-gas emissions were 470 MtCO2e per EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024 release), summed across 8 IPCC sectors and 3 gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) using AR6 GWP100 weighting.
What is South Africa's per-capita emission level?
Per-capita emissions are 7.83 tCO2e per person in 2022, derived from total emissions divided by population of 60,000,000.
Which sector dominates South Africa's emissions?
The largest emitting sector for South Africa in 2022 was Energy at 159.79 MtCO2e, accounting for 34.0% of national emissions per EU EDGAR sectoral data.
Disclaimer
PlainEmissions presents greenhouse-gas data for research and journalism. Emissions accounting is inherently uncertain — figures depend on the upstream measurement methodology, sectoral assumptions, and reporting vintage. Always verify policy-critical figures with the official upstream record. PlainEmissions does not provide policy advice, ESG attestation, investment advice, or regulatory-compliance guidance. Source notice: data published under CC BY 4.0 from EU EDGAR (Joint Research Centre).
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