CO2 by Country Screensaver
The CO2 by Country screensaver ranks countries by carbon dioxide emissions on a live bar board, drawn key-less from the World Bank's open data API — the real, official climate-economics benchmark. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the CO2 by Country screensaver works
The saver fetches the latest published CO2 emissions figures for every country from the World Bank's open data API, with no key required.
Countries rank top to bottom by real total emissions, with each bar sized to scale.
The board eases smoothly if the ranking shifts on refresh.
Choose how many countries appear on the board at once.
Territorial CO2: what the totals leave out
Country CO2 figures are usually reported in kilotonnes or million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and the World Bank republishes series compiled by other organisations rather than producing them itself. For example, its indicator for total CO2 emissions excluding land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) cites the EDGAR database from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the International Energy Agency as sources.
Such totals describe emissions where they are produced, called production-based or territorial accounting, which is the method countries use when they report emissions and set targets. The alternative, consumption-based accounting, adds the CO2 embedded in imported goods and subtracts that embedded in exports. A country that manufactures a lot for export therefore looks worse on a territorial ranking than its own residents’ consumption would imply, while a heavy importer looks better.
Totals also scale with population and economic size, so a large country ranks high even if emissions per person are modest, while a small producer can show the opposite profile. Published series cover past years and are revised as data and methods change, so the latest year in any ranking is behind the present.
A worked example
At the top you'll see the real current leading emitters — a handful of the world's largest economies — each bar reflecting the World Bank's own published figure, not an estimate.
Settings & tips
- Countries shown sets how many bars appear.
- Accent recolours the bars.
- Figures update on the World Bank's own publication schedule, typically annual.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this per-capita or total emissions?
- Total national emissions — larger, more populous economies naturally rank higher than smaller ones.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The World Bank's open data API is free and key-less.
- How current are the figures?
- As current as the World Bank's own latest published annual data for each country.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why do big countries dominate the ranking?
- Total emissions grow with population and industry, so the biggest economies appear at the top even when emissions per person are lower than in smaller countries.
- Do these figures include deforestation?
- Not necessarily. Some World Bank CO2 indicators explicitly exclude land use, land-use change and forestry, which are reported as separate series, so check which indicator a ranking uses.
- Why might a country's figure appear to jump?
- Revisions to energy statistics or methods, and real changes in fuel use or economic activity, can all produce shifts from one published year to the next.