India recorded the largest drop in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions among major countries in 2025, even as global emissions rose in several key sectors. According to new data from Climate TRACE, this is because of higher renewable energy deployment.
Across ten major emitting sectors worldwide, the biggest rise in emissions last year came from fossil fuel operations, which increased by 1.56 per cent, or 151.57 million tonnes (mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e). Emissions also climbed in transportation, manufacturing and buildings. However, the power sector — the single largest source of global emissions — recorded a slight decline.
Clean energy solutions like renewable sources of power and electric vehicles are taking hold in many locations around the world, and as a result, emissions are beginning to decline in these regions, Climate TRACE data noted.
India’s power sector emissions fell 2.6 per cent in 2025, marking the first decline since 2020. The drop came despite rising electricity demand and continued economic growth, suggesting that the rapid expansion of renewable energy is beginning to moderate emissions from electricity generation.
The power sector remains the largest contributor to global emissions, accounting for about 26 per cent of total greenhouse gas output. Globally, emissions from the sector dipped by 0.13 per cent, or 20.31 MtCO₂e, in 2025, the first decline since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Much of the global reduction was driven by lower electricity-generation emissions in India and China, according to the dataset.
For nearly a decade, India and China led the world in rising power sector emissions. Between 2015 and 2024, emissions from China’s power sector increased 53.7 per cent, while India’s rose 34.6 per cent.
But 2025 marked a shift. China’s power sector emissions declined 0.4 per cent, the first drop recorded by Climate TRACE since it began compiling its inventory in 2015, while India’s also registered a fall.
The trend indicates that accelerating deployment of renewable energy capacity is starting to offset emissions growth even as electricity consumption expands in the two fastest-growing energy markets.
Despite the decline in power sector pollution, India’s overall emissions edged up slightly in late 2025. In December 2025, the country’s emissions rose by 4.77 million tonnes CO₂e, or 1.34 per cent, compared to December 2024.
Globally, Russia recorded the largest overall increase in emissions in 2025, while China and the United States, the world’s two largest emitters, saw their emissions remain broadly flat, with small increases.
At the city level, some Indian industrial hubs saw the sharpest increases in emissions. Butibori in Maharashtra and Yamunanagar in Haryana were among the urban areas worldwide with the largest percentage increases in emissions.
Meanwhile, Mettur in Tamil Nadu was among cities recording the biggest decline in emissions globally.
Globally, the steepest increase in emissions came from oil and gas production, which rose 4.1 per cent in 2025, the largest jump among the 64 subsectors tracked by Climate TRACE. Much of the increase was driven by higher emissions from oil and gas production in Russia, though Kazakhstan, China, Saudi Arabia and Brazil also recorded significant growth.
The findings highlight a widening divergence between sectors: while clean energy expansion is beginning to slow power sector emissions growth in some major economies, rising fossil fuel production and transport activity continue to push global emissions higher.