Countries Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions the Most

Which countries have reduced carbon dioxide emissions the most since the year 2000?

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All the countries are in one continent except the ones marked in colors

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Last updated: November 2, 2025

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First submitted	January 6, 2017
Times taken	64,220
Average score	70.0%
Rating	4.89

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% Decrease	Country
67.2	Ukraine
51.9	Denmark
47.0	United Kingdom
45.9	Finland
45.3	Greece
44.7	Portugal
41.2	Czech Republic

% Decrease	Country
40.2	Estonia
34.9	Sweden
34.1	Italy
33.4	Germany
32.8	Netherlands
32.8	Yemen
31.5	France

% Decrease	Country
31.5	Syria
30.9	Palau
30.6	Belgium
30.0	Venezuela
29.1	Spain
29.0	Bulgaria

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32 Comments

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2025

I've updated this quiz to just be reductions. I might make another quiz for increases.

+43

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2025

Venezuelan: I wish that our country would burn less fossil fuel.

Monkey paw curls...

+10

Level 70

Jan 8, 2026

Man this comment was some serious foreshadowing.

Level 51

Jan 8, 2026

Damn yes

+25

Level 84

Nov 2, 2025

Not entirely positive: seems that war decreases emissions, but I'd prefer peace even if it meant more emissions.

+32

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2025

Yep. I was going to make the opposite quiz, but it's mostly just African countries that went from extreme poverty to less extreme poverty. For those countries, more fossil fuels consumption is a good thing.

Energy is the lifeblood of civilization. More energy = less poverty. So hopefully we can find ways to replace fossil fuels with more sustainable energy, especially nuclear.

We need a Manhattan project for thorium salt reactors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-salt_reactor

Level 78

Nov 2, 2025

Yes, this is the moon shot we need, Clean energy helps in so many ways (other than traditional energy billionaires and mega corporations who are doing everything to delay it).

+13

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2025

I think blaming oil companies at this point is a bit passé. Not too long ago, Exxon was the most valuable corporation in the U.S. Now look.

https://companiesmarketcap.com/

They rank #19 and are less than 10% as valuable as #1 NVIDIA.

Oil tycoons have less influence on society than at any time in the last 150 years. Sadly, it's not an oil company problem. It's a problem with scientific illiteracy in the general population.

The only country that is making progress in nuclear reactors is China, a dictatorship. Sadly, democratic societies are unable to move forward due to ignorance and superstition.

Level 75

Nov 2, 2025

first thing to do is probably change of thinking system about energy. Every new source of energy is a new layer, consumption of fossile energies doesn't go down.

I think less energy spilling due to the consumer society should be more efficient than a molted salt reactor. It's technically easier to decrease poverty with energy sharing: a little bit less fuel for occidental cars, a little bit less electricity for dumb AI searches, a little bit more for the generator of a waterpump in the south (yes it's exagerated but less than the faith in a new energy for every one :-) )

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-sub-energy-source

Level 63

Nov 2, 2025

Antidemocratic QM is new

Also, dictatorships aren't better at the thing, they just don't care.

Level ∞

Nov 2, 2025

Not new at all. I've always maintained that enlightened despotism is the best possible form of government.

China is not an enlightened despotism, of course, but their system of government does have some major advantages. .

Level 89

Nov 3, 2025

Too bad the Venn diagram of "enlightened people" and "people with both the desire and the capacity to become despots" is . . . yeah . . .

Level ∞

Nov 3, 2025

Yeah, probably the process by which one becomes a despot is disqualifying in most cases.

Level 57

Jan 8, 2026

Ngl I used to think an enlighted despotism is the way to go, but honestly it's probably one of the worst forms of government. A system dependent on one or a small number of individuals to properly function is begging to collapse.

Level 86

Nov 2, 2025

so maybe a quiz with CO2 emissions increase per energy unit?

Level 88

Nov 3, 2025

If it weren't for oil cartels we wouldn't be in as big of a mess as we are now. Who cares that they're "only" worth half a trillion dollars when they spent 150 years decimating the environment, overthrowing governments, and massacring people to secure oil interests?

Level 67

Jan 8, 2026

i enjoy my use of oil. i thank those that provide it.

Level 70

Jan 9, 2026

“Passé”? Fossil fuel companies have known carbon emissions cause global heating since the 1970s and worked to cover this up.1

And they continue to actively spread disinformation.2,3

All the while, fossil fuels receive trillions of dollars in subsidies globally, and approximately $31 billion in the U.S. alone.4,5

So, fossil fuels companies receive loads of taxpayer money, which they use to lie to people and warm the planet at a rate not seen for 10,000 years6, acting as the chief contributor to our passing 7 of 9 planetary boundaries7 for a liveable biosphere and move us into a world where rising heat kills one person a minute, worldwide.8

Still feel it’s passé to blame fossil fuel companies?

[Also, renewable energy installations are far cheaper, faster, and simpler to build than nuclear power plants. The amount of installed renewable power is forecast to more than double by 2030.9 Renewable energy is the cheapest power10 available, and it’s more reliable than many think.11]

Level 70

Jan 9, 2026

Sources:

1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago

2https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-companies-climate-crisis-pr-spending

3https://ricochet.media/media/media-3/the-disinformation-of-fossil-fuel-advertising-in-canada

4https://ourworldindata.org/how-much-subsidies-fossil-fuels

5https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/09/fossil-fuels-subisidies-study

6https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/evidence

7https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-acidification-threshold-pushes-earth-past-another-planetary-boundary

8https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/29/rising-heat-kills-one-person-a-minute-worldwide-lancet-countdown

9https://www.iea.org/news/global-renewable-capacity-is-set-to-grow-strongly-driven-by-solar-pv

10https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/renewable-energy-remains-cheapest-power-builds-new-gas-plants-get-pricier-2025-06-16

11https://www.sciencedirect.com

+15

Level 73

Nov 2, 2025

Ukraine, Yemen and Syria are because of less production caused by war and poverty so it is not positive...

Level 89

Nov 3, 2025

If not for the three-eyed fish hysteria about nuclear power, we would have a lot more competition on this list.

Level 74

Nov 3, 2025

Wow! I had no idea Yemen was so eco-conscious! Way to go, guys!

Level 66

Nov 4, 2025

It's not really about them being eco-conscious. Yemen's been in a civil war for over a decade, it's not safe in much of the country for businesses to operate, inadvertently leading to less CO2 being produced.

Level 69

Nov 12, 2025

I think it probably was a joke to begin with :D

Level 71

Nov 4, 2025

Basically the same reason that resulted in the Mongol conquests being visible in ice cores on Antarctica. Their warfare was so brutal and widespread that the combination of massacring people and livestock resulted in sharply decreased CO2 and methane emission to the atmosphere which then got preserved in ice. The problem with modern wars is that they kinda pollute and destroy the environment in a dozen other ways.

Level 65

Jan 8, 2026

The idea that the Mongols contributed to a decrease in CO2 is based on a single study from 2011 and is likely a myth. The decline in CO2 during that period was caused by other factors. Even if the conquests did lower CO2 levels, it was likely due to farmland being abandoned and forests regrowing in those territories. Here is a great video from a historian who explains it very well:

https://youtu.be/vjfmRyGCYH8?si=RcZPi_Exg68GlGLJ

Level 81

Dec 10, 2025

Venezuela should be in green, per JetPunk standard. That tripped me up.

Level 46

Jan 8, 2026

Agreed, the inconsistency is confusing.

Level ∞

Jan 8, 2026

My bad. Fixed.

Level 68

Jan 8, 2026

Something tells me that not everybody is on this list through choice.

Level 77

Jan 8, 2026

Perhaps as a way to distinguish between countries that are reducing emissions due to shrinking economies vs those that are reducing emissions while still growing, you could look at changes in carbon intensity (emissions per GDP).

Level 94

Jan 8, 2026

Almost all of this is due to de-industrialization. Some by choice and some by internal/external strife. Europe's losses are primarily due to outsourcing most of their production. The chemical industry is a shell of it's former self and will probably disappear completely in the next 30 years. Most automobile manufacturing outside of high end models has moved to less costly places in the world. I imagine by the time transportation of finished goods and CO2 produced in manufacturing in less regulated areas are added back into to equation the net results for Europe are not nearly as impressive.