Fugitive emissions
Methane leaks from oil & gas systems and coal mining.
Top 15 emitters in fugitive emissions (2022, MtCO2e)
EU EDGAR v8.0
Data from EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024)
Top 20 countries — Fugitive emissions (2022)
| Country | MtCO2e | Share of top 20 |
|---|---|---|
| China | 572.4 | 36.9% |
| United States | 240.4 | 15.5% |
| Saudi Arabia | 144 | 9.3% |
| India | 141.6 | 9.1% |
| Russia | 99.21 | 6.4% |
| Japan | 44 | 2.8% |
| Iran | 38 | 2.5% |
| Germany | 30 | 1.9% |
| South Korea | 28 | 1.8% |
| Canada | 27.6 | 1.8% |
| Mexico | 26 | 1.7% |
| Indonesia | 24.79 | 1.6% |
| Australia | 21.6 | 1.4% |
| South Africa | 18.79 | 1.2% |
| Turkey | 18.4 | 1.2% |
| Vietnam | 17.21 | 1.1% |
| Egypt | 15.21 | 1.0% |
| Italy | 14.79 | 1.0% |
| Thailand | 14.79 | 1.0% |
| Poland | 13.6 | 0.9% |
Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (Joint Research Centre, 2024). CC BY 4.0.
Fugitive emissions global emissions trend (2017-2022, MtCO2e)
Sum across top 20 emitting countries
Data from EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024)
Gas mix in fugitive emissions
| Gas | MtCO2e |
|---|---|
| Carbon dioxide | 1,312.63 |
| Methane | 319.28 |
| Nitrous oxide | 141.88 |
Why this matters
Fugitive emissions accounts for a structural slice of the global greenhouse-gas footprint. The top 20 emitters in this sector concentrate 1,550 MtCO2e in 2022 — most policy headroom for climate action lives in this same set of countries. Carbon dioxide dominates the gas mix here, which determines the abatement tooling that matters most. Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (2024), AR6 GWP100 weighting.
Methodology
The fugitive emissions sector is one of 8 IPCC-aligned categories tracked across PlainEmissions. Country totals are summed from emissions_records for this sector code at the latest reporting year (2022 EDGAR v8.0). Multi-year reconstruction applies a country-specific growth assumption against the 2022 baseline — full bottom-up time-series will land in 10-load-edgar-full.mjs once the bulk EDGAR extract is staged. See methodology for the full pipeline.
Source: EU EDGAR v8.0 (Joint Research Centre, 2024) — global bottom-up sectoral model, CC BY 4.0 license.
FAQ
Which country emits the most in the fugitive emissions sector?
China leads fugitive emissions emissions in 2022 at 572.4 MtCO2e per EU EDGAR v8.0 sectoral breakdown.
What does the fugitive emissions sector include?
Methane leaks from oil & gas systems and coal mining.
Which gas dominates fugitive emissions emissions?
Carbon dioxide dominates the fugitive emissions sector with 1,312.63 MtCO2e in 2022, weighted via AR6 GWP100 multipliers.
Disclaimer
PlainEmissions presents greenhouse-gas data for research and journalism. Sectoral assumptions vary across upstream sources (EDGAR vs UNFCCC vs Climate TRACE). Always verify policy-critical figures with the official upstream record. Source notice: data published under CC BY 4.0 from EU EDGAR.
Related from PlainEmissions
- All sectors
- All countries
- Top 15 Emitting Countries (2022)
- Multi-Source Emissions Reconciliation
- Related guide: IPCC Sector Taxonomy
- Methodology
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