China vs India: Annual CO₂ emissions from coal

China

8.89 billion tonnes

in 2024

India

2.11 billion tonnes

in 2024

China rank

1st

India rank

2nd

Annual CO₂ emissions from coal over time

China currently reports 8.89 billion tonnes against 2.11 billion tonnes in India, a difference of 6.78 billion tonnes.

That makes China's figure about 4.2 times India's.

The two have swapped places 6 times across 118 shared years of data; in 1907 it was China ahead.

China ranks 1st and India ranks 2nd of 179 countries.

Indicator: Annual CO₂ emissions from coal
Unit: tonnes
Source: Global Carbon Budget (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 179 places, 18,115 data points, 1750–2024
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from coal, measured in tonnes.