# Methane emissions

Methane (CH4) emitted in the year, in thousand tonnes of methane, from agriculture (livestock, manure, rice), fossil fuel production and distribution, waste and wastewater, fuel combustion and industry, as estimated by EDGAR. EDGAR estimates every country with the same IPCC methods and international activity statistics, so countries can be compared, but the values differ from the inventories countries report themselves. Emissions from land use, land use change and forestry and from large scale biomass burning (savannah and forest fires) are not included. The latest two years are fast track estimates from proxy statistics, replaced in later releases, and are marked provisional.

## Key facts

- Methane emissions in the United States was 29,362.3 thousand tonnes of methane in 2025, according to the European Commission, Joint Research Centre.
- China had the highest methane emissions of 217 countries in 2025, at 51,093.4 thousand tonnes of methane, and Tokelau the lowest, at 0 thousand tonnes of methane. Source: the European Commission, Joint Research Centre.
- Published for 217 places, with figures from 1970 to 2025.
- Figures last updated on 2026-10-12.

- Indicator id: `methane_emissions`
- Unit: thousand tonnes of methane
- Note: Tonnes of the gas itself, not CO2 equivalent: EDGAR weights a tonne of methane as 28 tonnes of CO2 (30 for fossil methane) over 100 years (IPCC AR5). EDGAR counts Andorra with Spain, Monaco with France, San Marino and the Holy See with Italy, and Liechtenstein with Switzerland. It reports Israel and Palestine, Sudan and South Sudan, and Serbia and Montenegro together, so those countries have no value here. Each release revises past years.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/en/methane-emissions
- API: https://invokely.ai/api/v1/indicators/methane_emissions

## Latest figures

| Place | Period | thousand tonnes of methane | Source |
|---|---|---:|---|
| United States | 2025 | 29,362.3 | EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) Community GHG Database, European Commission, Joint Research Centre. EDGAR CH4 emissions by country, thousand tonnes (Gg) of methane. https://jeodpp.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ftp/jrc-opendata/EDGAR/datasets/EDGAR_2026_GHG/. Retrieved 2026-10-12. © European Union, licensed under CC BY 4.0. |

## Rankings

- [Countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/methane-emissions/countries.md) (217 places)
- [EU countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/methane-emissions/eu-countries.md) (27 places)