What are Christmas Island’s total annual emissions?

A country’s total contribution to climate change is obviously its footprint per person, multiplied by its population. This is what the chart here shows. Again, this is shown alongside countries with a similar level of income.

Christmas Island emitted 0 tonnes of CO₂ in 2024.

These are territorial emissions, produced within the country’s borders. You will find consumption-based emissions, which adjust for imports and exports, later in this profile.

What share of global CO₂ emissions are emitted by Christmas Island?

Looking at a country’s annual emissions is useful, but it can be hard to put these numbers in context. Is 10 million tonnes of CO₂ large or small? What about 100 million or 1 billion tonnes?

This interactive chart shows annual emissions as a percentage of the global total in a given year.

Christmas Island emitted 0% of the world’s CO₂ emissions in 2024.

How much CO₂ has Christmas Island produced historically?

When we only look at emissions produced today, we lack context for historical responsibility for emissions over recent decades or centuries.

This interactive chart shows cumulative CO₂ emissions — the total emissions produced since 1751 up to the given year. This allows us to understand how much a given country has contributed to global emissions throughout its history. This is shown next to countries with a similar level of income today.

Christmas Island has emitted 1.33 million tonnes, as of 2024.

What share of global historical CO₂ has Christmas Island emitted?

Just as with annual emissions, simply presenting cumulative CO₂ figures can be hard to contextualize. Has a given country’s contribution to the global total been large or small?

This chart shows the country’s cumulative emissions as a share of global cumulative emissions.

Christmas Island has emitted <0.01% of global CO₂ emissions since 1751.

What share of Christmas Island’s CO₂ emissions are produced from different fuels?

CO₂ emissions are dominated by the burning of fossil fuels for energy production, and industrial production of materials such as cement.

What is the contribution of each fuel source to the country’s CO₂ emissions?

This interactive chart shows the breakdown of annual CO₂ emissions by source: either coal, oil, gas, cement production or gas flaring. This breakdown is strongly influenced by a country's energy mix and changes as it shifts to or away from a given energy source.

How are Christmas Island’s CO₂ emissions from different fuels changing?

The chart above allows us to see the breakdown of CO₂ emissions by fuel type. But it makes it more difficult to see the absolute change in particular fuel sources over time.

This interactive chart shows the same data — CO₂ emissions from coal, oil, gas, cement and flaring — but as individual lines to see clearly how each is changing over time.

Methane: how much does the average person in Christmas Island emit? Where do emissions come from?

Methane (CH₄) is a strong greenhouse gas, mainly produced through agricultural activities (e.g. livestock and rice production), in addition to leakages from oil and gas production (called ‘fugitive emissions’).

This first interactive chart here shows per capita emissions of methane each year. This is measured in ‘carbon dioxide equivalents’.

The other interactive chart shows the sources of these emissions and the contribution of each sector.

Nitrous oxide: how much does the average person in Christmas Island emit? Where do emissions come from?

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a strong greenhouse gas that is mainly produced from agricultural activities (e.g. from the use of synthetic and organic fertilizers to grow crops).

This first interactive chart here shows per capita emissions of nitrous oxide each year. This is measured in ‘carbon dioxide equivalents’.

The other interactive chart shows the sources of these emissions and the contribution of each sector.

Has Christmas Island’s economic growth decoupled from its CO₂ emissions?

To reduce emissions and achieve increasing prosperity at the same time, we have to decouple economic growth from CO₂ emissions. Several countries have achieved this in recent years.

The chart here shows whether this country has achieved this by showing the change in GDP per capita, and annual per capita CO₂ emissions over time.

We show both territorial and consumption-based emissions (where available). This allows us to see whether the import of production from other countries — or the export to other countries — has affected this change in emissions.