Since 1751, over 400 billion metric tonnes of carbon have been released from fossil fuel consumption and cement production. This dataset provides historical estimates of CO2 emissions at global, regional, and national levels, compiled by Gregg Marland of Appalachian State University from sources including U.N. energy statistics and historical production and trade compilations. The 2014 global fossil-fuel carbon emission estimate was 9855 million metric tons, an all-time high.
Use Cases
- Modeling long-term carbon budget trends based on historical emission estimates from 1751.
- Analyzing national and regional contributions to global CO2 emissions based on production and trade data.
- Tracking the evolution of fuel sources (e.g., solid, liquid, gas) in the global energy mix over time.
- Validating climate and economic models using the high-resolution historical time series mentioned in the description.
Strengths
- Provides a long-term time series of emissions data starting from 1751.
- Includes specific global totals, such as the 2014 emission estimate of 9855 million metric tons of carbon.
- Derives from multiple authoritative sources, including U.N. statistics and historical compilations by Etemad and Mitchell.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
Provenance
- Source
- Appalachian State University (Gregg Marland), based on U.N. statistics, USGS data, and historical compilations.
- Collection Method
- Estimates derived from digitized historical energy production and trade statistics, following procedures from Marland and Rotty (1984) and Boden et al. (1995).
- Time Range
- 1751 to present (at least through 2014).
- Geography
- Global, regional, and national coverage.