Climate TRACE Releases May 2025 Emissions Data

Climate TRACE reported that global greenhouse gas emissions for the month of May 2025 totaled 5.17 billion tonnes CO₂e. This represents an increase of 0.36% vs. May 2024. Total global year-to-date emissions are 25.78 billion tonnes CO₂e. This is 0.04% lower than the previous year-to-date total. Global methane emissions in May 2025 were 33.99 million tonnes CH₄, an increase of 0.63% vs. May 2024.

Data tables summarizing emissions totals for May 2025 by sector, country, and top 100 urban areas are available for download here.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Country: May 2025

Climate TRACE’s preliminary estimate of May 2025 emissions in China, the world’s top emitting country, is 1.47 billion tonnes CO₂e — a decrease of 1.18 million tonnes CO₂e or 0.08% vs. May 2024.

Of the other top five emitting countries:

• United States emissions increased by 2.68 million tonnes CO₂e, or 0.48% year over year;
• India emissions increased by 0.23 million tonnes CO₂e, or 0.06% year over year;
• Russia emissions increased by 0.94 million tonnes CO₂e, or 0.37% year over year;
• Indonesia emissions increased by 0.16 million tonnes CO₂e, or 0.11% year over year.

In the EU, which as a bloc would be the fourth largest source of emissions in May 2025, emissions increased by 1.24 million tonnes CO₂e compared to May 2024, or 0.39%.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector: May 2025

Greenhouse gas emissions increased year over year in fossil fuel operations, transportation, and waste, and decreased in manufacturing and power. Fossil fuel operations saw the greatest change in emissions year over year, with emissions increasing by 1.89%.

• Agriculture emissions were 693.99 million tonnes CO₂e, unchanged vs. May 2024;
• Buildings emissions were 283.98 million tonnes CO₂e, unchanged vs. May 2024;
• Fluorinated gases emissions were 137.71 million tonnes CO₂e, unchanged vs. May 2024;
• Fossil fuel operations emissions were 851.59 million tonnes CO₂e, a 1.89% increase vs. May 2024;
• Manufacturing emissions were 918.92 million tonnes CO₂e, a 0.12% decrease vs. May 2024;
• Mineral extraction emissions were 22.99 million tonnes CO₂e, unchanged vs. May 2024;
• Power emissions were 1,287.30 million tonnes CO₂e, a 0.23% decrease vs. May 2024;
• Transportation emissions were 772.99 million tonnes CO₂e, a 0.81% increase vs. May 2024;
• Waste emissions were 199.15 million tonnes CO₂e, a 0.27% increase vs. May 2024.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by City: May 2025

The urban areas with the highest total greenhouse gas emissions in May 2025 were Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; New York, United States; Los Angeles, United States; and Houston, United States.

The urban areas with the greatest increase in absolute emissions year over year were Owensboro, United States; Pittsburgh, United States; Katowice, Poland; Dortmund, Germany; and Xinyu, China. Those with the largest absolute emissions decline were Swansea, United Kingdom; Singapore, Singapore; Tangshan, China; Houston, United States; and Anchorage, United States.

The urban areas with the greatest increase in emissions as a percentage of their total emissions were Tobelo, Indonesia; Kombissiri, Burkina Faso; Manzil Bourguiba, Tunisia; Porto Amboim, Angola; and Gambat, Pakistan. Those with the greatest decrease by percentage were Swansea, United Kingdom; Moroni, Comoros; Klaipėda, Lithuania; Shitang, China; and Kimbe, Papua New Guinea.

RELEASE NOTES

Revisions to existing Climate TRACE data are common and expected. They allow us to take the most up-to-date and accurate information into account. As new information becomes available, Climate TRACE will update its emissions totals (potentially including historical estimates) to reflect new data inputs, methodologies, and revisions.

With the addition of May 2025 data, the Climate TRACE database is now updated to version V4.5.0. This release introduced major improvements to cement sector data, which now includes information from Global Energy Monitor (GEM)’s Global Cement and Concrete Tracker, resulting in changes to global emissions totals, asset-level activity data, and emissions factors.

Additionally, all historical oil and gas production and transport data was updated with new modeling on lifecycle emissions and changes to input data sources.

Other updates include: the addition of monthly, country-level data for crop residues; the addition of Q1 2025 data in the following forestry subsectors: land clearing, land degradation, forest fires, shrubgrass fires, wetland fires, and through May 2025 for water reservoirs; the incorporation of improved spatial data for water reservoirs; the addition of Q3 2024 asset-level data for oil refineries and steam cracking petrochemical assets; and the addition of asset-level data for rice production in 15 countries.

A detailed description of data updates is available in our changelog here.