This data visualization shows the emissions (sources) and removals (sinks) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) for more than 100 countries around the world. These estimates are informed by observations of atmospheric CO₂ observed by a network of ground-based sites and NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), which has mapped CO₂ around the globe since 2014.
The net emissions and removals are the combined impact of fossil fuel emissions and land carbon stock changes. These terrestrial carbon stock changes indicate changes in the amount of carbon stored in organic matter on land, which is impacted by land use and land use change, including emissions from deforestation and removals from improved land stewardship and reforestation.
The visualization shows that fossil fuel emissions drive net emissions of CO₂ to the atmosphere, which are in turn driving climate change. Terrestrial carbon stock changes are smaller than the fossil fuel emissions and regionally varying. In general, terrestrial carbon stocks are increasing across the northern extratropics but are more variable in the tropics, where deforestation is more extensive.
