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Global Carbon Project
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement
THRAC3E
CALIPSO
Future Earth
Carbon Monitor

Low latency Global Carbon Budget 2024

Photo: Brian Ralphs, CC BY 2.0

The Low latency Global Carbon Budget 2024 covers January to December 2024 and was published in National Science Review on 15 January 2026. The CO2 growth rate from the NOAA marine boundary layer network reached a record 3.73 ± 0.08 ppm yr−1, a 38% increase over 2023, while fossil CO2 emissions increased by only 0.85%. The vegetation models estimate a net land source of 0.65 ± 0.85 GtC yr−1, the weakest net land flux since 1987, and the OCO-2 inversions give a small sink of 0.29 ± 0.80 GtC yr−1. Tropical lands were a net source, with the largest anomalies in the Amazon and central Africa. Fire emissions were 0.50 GtC yr−1 above the 2015–2022 mean.

Maps of net land and ocean CO2 flux anomalies in 2024, for the whole year and each quarter, from bottom-up models and OCO-2 inversions
Net land and ocean CO2 flux anomalies in 2024, for the whole year and each quarter, relative to the 2015–2022 average: bottom-up models (left) and the OCO-2 inversions (right). Positive values mean more CO2 taken up from the atmosphere by the land or the ocean. Supplementary Figure S3 in Ciais, P., Ke, P., Yao, Y., et al. (2026), National Science Review, 13(2), nwaf594. CC BY 4.0.

Key results

Publication

Ciais, P., Ke, P., Yao, Y., Sitch, S., Li, W., Xu, Y., et al. (2026). Low latency global carbon budget indicates reduced land carbon sink in the year 2024. National Science Review, 13(2), nwaf594. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf594

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Key numbers as published [csv]

View the 2025 budget

View the 2024–25 budget

View the 2023–24 budget

View the 2023 budget