Global Carbon Budget 2020

A newer version of this dataset is available. The latest version available on Openclimatedata is 2024.

Published: December 11, 2020

Citation: Friedlingstein et al., Global Carbon Budget 2020. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020

Data: Global Carbon Project. (2020). Supplemental data of Global Carbon Budget 2020 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Global Carbon Project. https://doi.org/10.18160/gcp-2020

Changelog:
  • 2019 total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions: 11.5 ± 0.9 GtC/year (42.2 ± 3.3 GtCO₂/year).
  • 2019 growth in fossil CO₂ was only about 0.1 % with fossil emissions increasing to 9.9 ± 0.5 GtC/year excluding the cement carbonation sink (9.7 ± 0.5 GtC/year when cement carbonation sink is included)
  • 2019 global atmospheric CO₂ concentration: 409.85 ± 0.1 ppm
  • inclusion of cement carbonation sink in budget calculations

Terrestrial CO₂ sink (positive values represent a flux from the atmosphere to the land)

All values in billion tonnes of carbon per year (GtC/yr), for the globe. For values in billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (GtCO₂/yr), multiply the numbers below by 3.664.
1 billion tonnes C = 1 petagram of carbon (10^15 gC) = 1 gigatonne C = 3.664 billion tonnes of CO₂
Methods: The terrestrial sink (uncertainty of ±0.9 GtC/yr on average) is estimated from the average of several Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) that reproduce the observed mean total land uptake of the 1990s. Cite as: Friedlingstein et al (2020; see summary tab)
Cite individual estimates as:
  • CABLE-POP Haverd, V., Smith, B., Nieradzik, L., Briggs, P. R., Woodgate, W., Trudinger, C. M., Canadell, J. G., and Cuntz, M.: A new version of the CABLE land surface model (Subversion revision r4601) incorporating land use and land cover change, woody vegetation demography, and a novel optimisation-based approach to plant coordination of photosynthesis, Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 2995-3026, 2018.
  • CLASSIC Melton, J. R., Arora, V. K., Wisernig-cojoc, E., Seiler, C., Fortier, M. and Chan, E.: CLASSIC v1.0: the open-source community successor to the Canadian Land Surface Scheme ( CLASS ) and the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model ( CTEM ) – Part 1: Model framework and site-level performance, , 2825–2850, 2020.
  • CLM5.0 Lawrence, D., Fisher, R., Koven, C., Oleson, K., Swenson, S., et al.: The Community Land Model version 5: Description of new features, benchmarking, and impact of forcing uncertainty, JAMES, accepted, 2019
  • DLEM Tian, H., G. Chen, C. Lu, X. Xu, D. J. Hayes, W. Ren, S. Pan, D.N. Huntzinger, S.C. Wofsy: North American terrestrial CO₂ uptake largely offset by CH4 and N2O emissions: Toward a full accounting of the greenhouse gas budget, Climatic Change, 129:423-426, 2015
  • IBIS Yuan WP, Liu D, Dong WJ, Liu SG, Zhou GS, Yu GR, Zhao TB, Feng JM, Ma ZG, Chen JQ, Chen Y, Chen SP, Han SJ, Huang JP, Li LH, Liu HZ, Liu SM, Ma MG, Wang YF, Xia JZ, Xu WF, Zhang Q, Zhao XQ, Zhao L. 2014. Multiyear precipitation reduction strongly decreases carbon uptake over northern China. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 119, 881-896.
  • ISAM Meiyappan, P., Jain, A. K., and House, J. I.: Increased influence of nitrogen limitation on CO₂ emissions from future land use and land use change, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 29, 1524-1548, 2015.
  • ISBA-CTRIP Delire, C., Séférian, R., Decharme, B., Alkama, R., Calvet, J., Carrer, D., Gibelin, A., Joetzjer, E., Morel, X., Rocher, M. and Tzanos, D.: The Global Land Carbon Cycle Simulated With ISBA‐CTRIP: Improvements Over the Last Decade, J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 12(9), doi:10.1029/2019MS001886, 2020.
  • JSBACH Mauritsen, T., Bader, J., Becker, T., Behrens, J., Bittner, M., Brokopf, R., Brovkin, V., Claussen, M., Crueger, T., Esch, M., Fast, I., Fiedler, S., Popke, D., Gayler, V., Giorgetta, M., Goll, D., Haak, H., Hagemann, S., Hedemann, C., Hohenegger, C., Ilyina, T., Jahns, T., Jimenez Cuesta de la Otero, D., Jungclaus, J., Kleinen, T., Kloster, S., Kracher, D., Kinne, S., Kleberg, D., Lasslop, G., Kornblueh, L., Marotzke, J., Matei, D., Meraner, K., Mikolajewicz, U., Modali, K., Möbis, B., Müller, W., Nabel, J.E.M.S., Nam, C., Notz, D., Nyawira, S., Paulsen, H., Peters, K., Pincus, R., Pohlmann, H., Pongratz, J., Popp, M., Raddatz, T., Rast, S., Redler, R., Reick, C., Rohrschneider, T., Schemann, V., Schmidt, H., Schnur, R., Schulzweida, U., Six, K., Stein, L., Stemmler, I., Stevens, B., von Storch, J., Tian, F., Voigt, A., de Vrese, P., Wieners, K.-H., Wilkenskjeld, S., Roeckner, E. & Winkler, A. (in review). Developments in the MPI-M Earth System Model version 1.2 (MPI-ESM1.2) and its response to increasing CO₂.
  • JULES-ES Sellar, A. A., Jones, C. G., Mulcahy, J., Tang, Y., Yool, A., Wiltshire, A., O’Connor, F. M., Stringer, M., Hill, R., Palmieri, J., Woodward, S., Mora, L., Kuhlbrodt, T., Rumbold, S., Kelley, D. I., Ellis, R., Johnson, C. E., Walton, J., Abraham, N. L., Andrews, M. B., Andrews, T., Archibald, A. T., Berthou, S., Burke, E., Blockley, E., Carslaw, K., Dalvi, M., Edwards, J., Folberth, G. A., Gedney, N., Griffiths, P. T., Harper, A. B., Hendry, M. A., Hewitt, A. J., Johnson, B., Jones, A., Jones, C. D., Keeble, J., Liddicoat, S., Morgenstern, O., Parker, R. J., Predoi, V., Robertson, E., Siahaan, A., Smith, R. S., Swaminathan, R., Woodhouse, M. T., Zeng, G. and Zerroukat, M.: UKESM1: Description and evaluation of the UK Earth System Model (accepted), J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 2019MS001739, doi:10.1029/2019MS001739, 2019.
  • LPJ-GUESS Smith, B., Warlind, D., Arneth, A., Hickler, T., Leadley, P., Siltberg, J., and Zaehle, S.: Implications of incorporating N cycling and N limitations on primary production in an individual-based dynamic vegetation model, Biogeosciences, 11, 2027-2054, 2014.
  • LPJ Poulter, B., Frank, D. C., Hodson, E. L., and Zimmermann, N. E.: Impacts of land cover and climate data selection on understanding terrestrial carbon dynamics and the CO₂ airborne fraction, Biogeosciences, 8, 2027-2036, 2011.
  • LPX-Bern Lienert, S. and Joos, F.: A Bayesian ensemble data assimilation to constrain model parameters and land-use carbon emissions, Biogeosciences, 15, 2909-2930, 2018.
  • OCNv2 Zaehle, S. and Friend, A. D.: Carbon and nitrogen cycle dynamics in the O-CN land surface model: 1. Model description, site-scale evaluation, and sensitivity to parameter estimates, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 24, GB1005, 2010
  • ORCHIDEEv3 Vuichard, N., Messina, P., Luyssaert, S., Guenet, B., Zaehle, S., Ghattas, J., Ipsl, L. and Paris-saclay, U.: Accounting for carbon and nitrogen interactions in the global terrestrial ecosystem model ORCHIDEE ( trunk version , rev 4999 ): multi-scale evaluation of gross primary production, , 4751–4779, 2019.
  • SDGVM Walker, A. P., Quaife, T., van Bodegom, P. M., De Kauwe, M. G., Keenan, T. F., Joiner, J., Lomas, M. R., MacBean, N., Xu, C. G., Yang, X. J., and Woodward, F. I.: The impact of alternative trait-scaling hypotheses for the maximum photosynthetic carboxylation rate (V-cmax) on global gross primary production, New Phytologist, 215, 1370-1386, 2017.
  • VISIT Kato, E., Kinoshita, T., Ito, A., Kawamiya, M. and Yamagata, Y.: Evaluation of spatially explicit emission scenario of land-use change and biomass burning using a process-based biogeochemical model, J. Land Use Sci., 8(1), 104–122, doi:10.1080/1747423x.2011.628705, 2013.
  • YIBs Yue, X. and Unger, N.: The Yale Interactive terrestrial Biosphere model version 1.0: description , evaluation and implementation into NASA GISS, , 2399–2417, doi:10.5194/gmd-8-2399-2015, 2015.

GCB

GCB

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
GtC

Unit GtC/year

YearGCB
19590.6774
19601.2584
19610.6603
19621.4082
19631.0238
19641.5295
19650.4808
19661.4343
19671.6408
19682.3674
19690.7482
19700.7239
19712.2851
19721.3218
19731.7956
19743.5480
19752.4070
19762.8694
19771.5822
19782.5517
19791.6185
19800.7809
19812.2587
19821.7864
19830.6738
19842.8359
19852.7068
19862.3486
19870.8240
19882.1969
19893.5118
19902.6220
19912.2136
19922.2906
19933.1016
19941.7898
19952.0214
19963.0745
19973.2637
19981.9415
19993.5387
20003.7567
20012.6759
20021.6136
20032.5567
20043.6017
20052.2010
20063.2180
20072.9946
20083.6323
20093.0345
20103.2998
20114.0767
20122.8244
20133.6449
20143.8341
20152.6415
20163.1832
20173.8300
20183.7764
20193.1367

Individual Models

CABLE-POP

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
1
2
3
4
5
6
GtC

CLASSIC

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
GtC

CLM5.0

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
GtC

DLEM

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
GtC

IBIS

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
GtC

ISAM

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
GtC

ISBA-CTRIP

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

JSBACH

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

JULES-ES

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

LPJ

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

LPJ-GUESS

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

LPX-Bern

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
-1
0
1
2
3
GtC

MMM (multi-model mean)

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
GtC

OCNv2

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
1
2
3
4
5
GtC

ORCHIDEE-v3

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
GtC

SDGVM

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
-1
0
1
2
3
4
GtC

VISIT

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
1
2
3
4
5
GtC

YIBs

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2
3
4
5
GtC

Model Spread (sd)

1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
GtC

Unit GtC/year

YearCABLE-POPCLASSICCLM5.0DLEMIBISISAMISBA-CTRIPJSBACHJULES-ESLPJLPJ-GUESSLPX-BernMMM (multi-model mean)OCNv2ORCHIDEE-v3SDGVMVISITYIBsModel Spread (sd)
19590.70000.29001.23000.94260.98001.24000.90000.55001.1500−0.4300−0.94000.26000.67741.15000.63400.20001.33001.33000.6205
19601.77000.90001.42001.71281.05001.41001.63001.83001.48000.41000.86000.86001.25841.08000.99000.55001.78001.66000.4392
19610.35000.80000.56000.69520.43001.00000.53001.66000.6900−0.46000.7200−0.02000.66031.34000.9300−0.85001.48001.37000.6429
19622.86001.36001.24000.94481.13001.38001.47002.14001.89000.26001.7000−0.09001.40821.73001.5450−0.17002.36002.19000.8037
19631.1700−0.13000.82001.31100.81001.18001.57001.68001.8300−0.33000.29000.21001.02381.74000.62400.78002.34001.51000.7137
19642.86001.41002.00001.65991.29002.070001.63002.16000.90002.25001.12001.52951.85001.21200.30001.61001.68000.6837
19651.6700−0.91001.08000.42720.57001.21001.35000.41001.3900−0.5600−0.0200−1.11000.48080.70000.9660−1.51001.32001.19000.9442
19661.80002.35001.56001.77861.28001.35001.14002.16000.82000.18001.45000.92001.43431.59001.21501.88001.34001.57000.5008
19672.09000.75001.80001.64700.70001.89001.53001.93002.60001.07001.63001.11001.64082.66001.24701.20001.93002.11000.5575
19682.63003.25002.16002.53891.39002.50001.77001.85002.60002.50003.45002.14002.36742.78001.60702.18002.86002.04000.5394
19692.2100−0.25001.21000.53161.05000.39000.65001.330000.30000.46000.38000.74820.69000.91800.56000.70001.59000.5800
19701.81000.52001.28000.83551.83000.73000.42001.32000.4600−0.8200−0.01000.11000.72390.68000.9710−0.65000.80002.02000.7753
19711.32002.83001.81002.72622.08002.48001.78001.56002.89002.16003.18002.03002.28512.87001.85101.84003.00002.44000.5435
19721.85001.70000.77001.24701.80000.76002.0200−0.68000.74001.53002.33001.40001.32181.70000.68301.09001.97001.56000.6969
19733.73003.01001.97002.80932.25001.8400−0.55001.6400−0.61000.79003.16000.56001.79562.16001.84602.26000.92002.74001.1932
19742.14004.27002.82004.11132.00003.35004.02004.48003.58003.67004.56003.60003.54804.30002.87403.05004.52002.97000.7847
19752.16003.41002.42002.09142.59002.15001.42001.99002.26002.03003.02002.14002.40703.25001.59801.92003.65002.82000.6108
19762.33002.91003.30002.90162.04002.81002.70001.45003.52004.34003.18002.32002.86943.74001.68902.59004.36002.60000.7942
19772.32002.34001.93001.13081.28001.15001.40000.93001.42001.71000.23001.69001.58222.56000.72701.13002.50002.45000.6664
19783.50003.17002.41002.31950.95002.56001.86003.11002.13002.66003.33001.84002.55172.72002.10903.11002.97002.63000.6292
19792.06000.58002.12001.70581.72001.59001.82002.57001.44001.14000.60000.73001.61852.06001.41801.05002.36002.55000.6209
19803.1300−0.34001.41000.61351.37001.09000.73001.42000.7100−0.6600−0.9000−1.02000.78091.11001.2620−0.57001.33002.59001.1361
19812.12002.43002.38003.11871.67002.26002.23002.82001.99001.05001.56000.96002.25873.52002.21902.29002.47003.31000.6824
19824.10000.38001.85001.88361.39002.05001.91000.85001.85001.77002.27000.82001.78642.05001.77500.21002.36002.85000.8961
19832.5900−0.64001.24001.13601.20000.78000.19001.5700−0.1700−0.6700−0.4800−1.46000.67381.24000.86900.45000.39003.22001.1538
19844.47004.10002.49003.53931.93002.68002.29002.78001.40002.45003.18002.11002.83593.15003.12101.42003.70003.40000.8449
19853.21003.24002.51002.43061.83002.77003.05003.47001.97002.40003.18001.49002.70683.42002.41502.08002.91003.64000.6119
19863.26002.24003.20002.11172.51002.23002.02002.22002.51002.11002.410002.34863.17001.52402.12002.80003.49000.7785
19873.6700−1.64001.49000.96441.35000.80001.35000.8800−0.13000.3700−0.6700−0.68000.82401.53000.7540−0.25001.25002.97001.2660
19884.34001.32002.30003.38011.92002.25001.23003.47002.49000.24000.65000.87002.19693.04002.13702.07001.79003.85001.1142
19893.77004.50002.99003.98623.63003.17003.16003.00003.69003.19003.57002.94003.51184.09002.74502.62004.10004.55000.5772
19903.35003.23002.99001.81003.21001.97002.69002.34001.58002.50003.03002.05002.62202.97001.98401.73002.79004.35000.7063
19912.57001.31003.04002.25251.74002.45002.15002.73002.68001.62000.92000.51002.21363.23001.93801.32002.80004.37000.9148
19923.41000.87002.75003.10062.63003.41001.26000.95002.05003.14003.15000.63002.29062.80001.59901.65001.40004.14001.0291
19934.93002.88003.20003.10472.84002.98003.10002.24002.20003.71003.95001.93003.10163.89002.62201.75002.76004.64000.8631
19943.41000.46002.05001.31112.62001.28002.21001.75002.19000.9100−0.22000.35001.78982.51001.53600.62002.71004.73001.1958
19953.54000.82002.47001.99032.45001.58002.10001.67001.81000.98001.02000.36002.02142.71002.02302.02001.96004.86001.0258
19963.79003.86002.52002.92031.94002.73002.44002.42001.97002.98004.77002.96003.07453.42002.93702.80003.70004.11000.7472
19973.58004.03002.92003.55291.41002.52003.21003.62002.74003.78003.59003.10003.26373.83001.95004.11003.47004.07000.7332
19984.91002.35002.35001.03331.91000.72001.38003.99000.11000.56000.57001.22001.94151.92001.61202.03002.19004.15001.2992
19993.43003.31003.53003.81834.10003.47003.36004.65003.43003.32002.42002.69003.53873.98002.92002.22004.80004.71000.7292
20004.22005.76003.28003.82932.77003.19003.60004.50003.67003.86003.09003.19003.75674.41002.86402.29004.77004.57000.8464
20013.22003.80002.83002.29202.84002.44002.67002.68002.47002.14001.54001.01002.67593.23001.66902.36003.88004.42000.8444
20025.46000.56002.28001.09032.97001.47002.15001.15000.99000.6700−0.2300−0.37001.61362.02001.40100.17001.62004.03001.4498
20033.82002.74002.69002.74532.59002.28002.33003.62001.77001.51001.70000.51002.55673.32001.90803.00002.69004.24000.8955
20045.77004.00003.22003.64332.83003.34003.15003.66003.00003.56004.34002.37003.60174.33002.25502.90004.36004.50000.8583
20054.47001.33002.81002.20922.82001.59002.31001.76002.06001.71001.06000.44002.20102.73001.58701.76002.25004.52001.0329
20064.62003.06002.88003.45833.30002.68003.25002.88003.01002.69002.50002.17003.21803.86001.99703.91003.77004.67000.7398
20074.94002.80003.05002.94983.53002.48002.80003.95002.88001.95001.81000.87002.99463.49002.50801.61004.24005.05001.0988
20085.54003.89002.71003.61763.48003.46003.06004.37003.58003.21003.91002.24003.63234.32002.85102.10004.72004.69000.8882
20094.84003.02002.73002.93393.45002.40002.78003.50002.36003.50002.13001.84003.03453.64001.87302.41003.83004.35000.8262
20104.68004.09003.55003.18322.73002.19002.53004.96001.12002.90003.37001.90003.29983.71002.43304.13004.20004.42001.0307
20114.09003.85004.14004.53143.20003.75003.87004.66004.33004.52004.14002.73004.07675.11002.80302.78005.77005.03000.8312
20124.64002.01003.01002.22243.52002.42003.58002.62003.13002.16001.04001.23002.82443.65001.92301.78004.04005.04001.1074
20136.60004.82003.16003.27153.69003.02002.83004.65002.26003.64003.50002.50003.64493.78002.61202.43003.93005.27001.1138
20144.90004.32003.70003.96803.19003.28003.88003.13002.91004.56004.20002.66003.83414.75002.49203.00004.99005.25000.8471
20155.00001.42003.07002.10652.80002.40003.69001.87002.31002.68000.73000.29002.64153.79001.49902.75003.27005.23001.2909
20165.50003.60003.35003.49293.52002.53002.32003.55001.11002.73001.85001.77003.18324.23002.51203.71002.35005.99001.2310
20175.24005.59003.26003.47563.61003.27004.38003.90002.55003.43003.47002.40003.83004.30002.96503.11004.53005.63000.9517
20186.46002.82003.11003.38074.28002.84003.49004.45002.93003.46003.64002.35003.77644.36002.78803.46004.75005.63001.0587
20194.95001.72003.74002.20864.40002.25003.12004.11002.54003.11002.94000.99003.13673.94001.74602.21003.50005.85001.2316