By The Ledger Africa Editorial Team<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Africa emits about 6.4% of the world’s greenhouse gases, and four countries produce nearly half of that. The continent released about 3.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, against a world total of about 52.7 billion, according to a ranking by Visual Capitalist built on the European Commission’s EDGAR database. China emitted about 4.7 times as much as all of Africa, the United States about 1.8 times and India about 1.3 times. Africa’s total is roughly what Russia and Saudi Arabia emit together (3.42 billion tonnes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The African figure is The Ledger’s own sum of the 54 African entries in the ranking’s table. The world total is inferred from China’s stated share of 30.3%, so the 6.4% is approximate. The ranking leaves out international aviation and shipping, and The Ledger has not yet checked its numbers against EDGAR itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa leads at 519 million tonnes, 18th in the world and about four-fifths of Germany’s 660 million. Egypt (391 million) and Nigeria (368 million) follow, close to France (377 million) and the UK (376 million). Algeria (269 million) and Ethiopia (191 million) complete the five African countries in the global top 40. The first three account for about 38% of the continent’s total and the first four for about 46%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tail is long and light. Eleven African entries emit 100 million tonnes or more, and together they make up about 71% of the continent’s total. At the other end, 38 entries emit under 50 million tonnes each, and all of them added up come to about 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why these countries? The page points to fossil-fuel dependence, energy-intensive industry and the energy mix, not population alone. Saudi Arabia emits more than Pakistan with far fewer people, and Canada slightly more than Mexico (765 million tonnes against 717 million) with less than a third of its population. The page does not split the African figures by source, so whether the same logic explains South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria is an open question. A sector breakdown would settle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenya emitted 109 million tonnes, 51st in the world and 0.2% of the total. That is about 3.2% of Africa’s emissions and one-fifth of South Africa’s, so South Africa alone is nearly five Kenyas. Kenya sits just above Belgium (106 million) and Czechia (103 million) and level with Tanzania (103 million). Within Africa it ranks ninth. Ethiopia emits about 1.75 times as much, while Uganda (59 million) and Rwanda (10 million) emit far less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking East Africa and the Horn as nine countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti), together they emit about 523 million tonnes. That is about 1% of the world total and level with South Africa’s 519 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenya’s position cuts two ways. A small share means domestic policy moves the world total very little: if Kenya’s emissions doubled to about 218 million tonnes, its share would rise from 0.2% to about 0.4%, and it would still rank below Algeria. It also means Kenya’s emissions alone give it little leverage in negotiations. A claim to climate finance would rest on other evidence, such as exposure to climate damage, which this ranking does not measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A national total cannot show emissions per person, the usual way to compare a large economy with a small one. It cannot show history, so it says nothing about who has contributed most over time. It covers one year, so it cannot say whether African emissions are rising. And it does not make clear whether land-use emissions, such as forest clearance, are counted, which matters for heavily forested countries. The table also combines some geographic areas, as its own note says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gap on trend matters because the page reports movement elsewhere. It says China’s energy-related CO2 emissions fell by about 0.5% in 2025, citing the International Energy Agency, and that India’s also declined. It adds that EU greenhouse gas emissions are down 40% since 1990 while the bloc’s economy grew by more than 70%. If emissions can fall while economies grow, the useful question for African governments is how far their own economies can grow without emissions rising in step. The ranking cannot answer it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n African governments can fairly cite the 6% in talks over climate finance and over carbon rules in trade. The difficulty is that a total invites an obvious reply: a few large African economies already emit sizeable amounts, and growth in them would move the continental figure far more than anything in a country the size of Kenya. An exporter or finance ministry arguing from the share should expect to be pressed on per-person and trend data, and should have it to hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Per-person and historical series from EDGAR, with a clear statement on land use, would show how strong the case is. So would a sector breakdown for the four largest emitters. Next year’s update will show whether the total and the order of the top five have moved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Africa’s small share is real, but how strong a card it is in climate talks depends on data the ranking lacks By The Ledger Africa Editorial Team Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"ledger_sector":[],"class_list":["post-7316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-ledger-data"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7318,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316\/revisions\/7318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7316"},{"taxonomy":"ledger_sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theledgerafrica.media\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fledger_sector&post=7316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Concentration at the top<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Where Kenya sits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What the number leaves out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The argument and its test<\/h2>\n\n\n\n