{"id":353730,"date":"2026-01-05T18:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353730\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:09:12","slug":"are-colorados-carbon-emissions-among-the-highest-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/353730\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Colorado\u2019s carbon emissions among the highest in the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While Colorado ranks near the middle of U.S. states for carbon emissions per capita, it still produces enough CO2 per person to rival countries on the World Bank\u2019s list of top emitters internationally.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Colorado produced 13.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. If it had been ranked by the World Bank during the same year, Colorado would have placed 14th among the more than 200 countries on the list, just behind Canada, at 14.1, and just ahead of the U.S. as a whole, at 13.7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among U.S. states, Colorado ranked 26th in carbon emissions per capita. Wyoming had the highest per capita emissions in the country, at 92.9 metric tons, while Maryland had the lowest, at 7.8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of Colorado\u2019s emissions come from energy production and consumption, primarily natural gas and oil production and electric power production and consumption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun partners with Gigafact<\/a> to produce fact briefs \u2014 bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology<\/a> to learn how we check claims.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

Colorado State Energy Profile, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

2023 Colorado Statewide Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, pg. 128, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, November 2024. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

Senate Bill 24-230 Oil and Gas Production Fees, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December, 2025. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

Senate Bill 23-016 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December 2025. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

Carbon dioxide emissions, World Bank Group, 2024, accessed in December 2025. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

Energy-related CO2 emission data tables, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link<\/a><\/p>\n

Type of Story: Fact-Check<\/p>\n

Checks a specific statement or set of statements asserted as fact.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCassis Tingley is a Denver-based freelance journalist. She\u2019s spent the last three years covering topics ranging from political organizing and death doulas in the Denver community to academic freedom and administrative accountability at the…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Cassis Tingley\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes. While Colorado ranks near the middle of U.S. states for carbon emissions per capita, it still produces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10098,136311,14822,22689,14530,136312,1344,136313,1397,15692,1295,4892,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-353730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-air-pollution","9":"tag-air-pollution-control-division","10":"tag-carbon-dioxide","11":"tag-carbon-emissions","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-colorado-air-pollution-control-division","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-energy-and-carbon-management-commission","16":"tag-environment","17":"tag-epa","18":"tag-international-trade","19":"tag-pollution","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}