CO₂ emissions from transport

Description: Emissions are measured in tonnes.
Data source: Climate Watch (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Unit: tonnes
Date range: 1990-2023
Last updated: 2026-02-10
Next expected update: 2027-02-10
Managed by: Pablo Rosado

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Frequently asked questions

How did Our World in Data process this data?

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Documentation from data sources

Principal data source

Transportation subsector contains CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O emissions from the following activities:

Road.
Rail.
Domestic aviation.
Pipeline transport.
Domestic navigation.
Non-specified transport (all emissions from transport not specified elsewhere).

Please note that transport emissions for world total includes international marine bunkers and international aviation bunkers, which are not included in transportation at a national or regional level.

Data sources

Climate Watch – Greenhouse gas emissions by sector

Climate Watch Historical Emissions data contains sector-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including emissions of the six major GHGs from most major sources and sinks. Non-CO₂ emissions are expressed in CO₂ equivalents using 100-year global warming potential values from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).

More information about their data sources and methodology can be found in their FAQ page. Specifically, the definitions of all Climate Watch data sectors and their methodology are explained in this document.

Retrieved on

February 10, 2026

Retrieved from

https://www.climatewatchdata.org/data-explorer/historical-emissions

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

Climate Watch. 2026. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute (WRI). Available online at: https://www.climatewatchdata.org
Climate Watch data are derived from several sources.

Data on land-Use change and forestry, and agriculture, are sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT Emissions Database.
Data on greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion are sourced from the OECD/IEA.

How to cite

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: CO₂ emissions from transport”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2023) - “CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. Data adapted from Climate Watch. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/co2-emissions-transport.html [online resource] (archived on November 2, 2026).

How to cite this data

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Climate Watch (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Climate Watch (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “CO₂ emissions from transport” [dataset]. Climate Watch, “Greenhouse gas emissions by sector” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/co2-emissions-transport.html (archived on November 2, 2026).

All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.

All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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