Carbon dioxide: Movement

Why CO2 moves by road, not by ship

What this tab covers How it moves between countries: share of output traded, physical form and transport, the largest exporters and importers, main routes, India's trade, and handling rules in transit.

Trade in 2024 UN Comtrade, HS 281121

World exports $661.6 m 107 reporting exporters · about 17.1 m t Largest exporter Netherlands 26.5% of world exports Largest importer France 6.8% of world imports India imports $799k
exports $3.81 m #82 importer · #35 exporter

Where it is exported from and imported to, 2024

Chart: World map of the largest trade flows

Exporter (size = share of world exports) Importer (share of world imports) Shipping chokepoint UN Comtrade 2024, HS 281121: shares of reported world exports and imports by value. Country-to-country route lines are not available for this commodity yet. Hover a circle for values.

HS 281121: largest exporters

Country	Share	Value (US$)	Tonnes
Netherlands	26.5%	$175.5 m	677k
United States	6.6%	$43.8 m	14.6 m
Germany	5.4%	$35.7 m	90k
Belgium	3.7%	$24.5 m	162k
Austria	3.4%	$22.8 m	37k
China	3.4%	$22.3 m	126k
South Korea	3.2%	$21.5 m	23k
Singapore	2.8%	$18.2 m	52k

HS 281121: largest importers

Country	Share	Value (US$)	Tonnes
France	6.8%	$47.8 m	89k
United Kingdom	6.6%	$46.2 m	267k
Mexico	5.6%	$39.1 m	128k
United States	4.3%	$30.1 m	154k
Poland	4.1%	$28.7 m	7,868
Italy	3.8%	$26.6 m	63k
Germany	3.8%	$26.4 m	226k
Japan	3.3%	$22.9 m	40k

UN Comtrade 2024, reported by each country (exports by exporters, imports by importers), all partners. Some countries (for example Russia and Iran) do not report, so their shares are missing. HS codes can be broader than the tile: check the code before reading a share as the whole market.

How it moves

Measure	Figure
Share traded	small share crosses borders (indicative); most moves by road within a country
How it moves	Refrigerated liquid in insulated road tankers and ISO tanks, dry ice, cylinders; pipelines for EOR and CCS. Small CO2 ships run in Northern Europe, and larger ones are being built for CCS (Northern Lights, indicative).
Routes and chokepoints	Within Europe by road and short-sea; the UK relies on domestic supply plus imports from the Continent. US pipelines from Colorado and New Mexico to the Permian Basin.
India	Trade negligible; supply is domestic (HS 281121 values not retrieved).
Handling in transit	UN1013 (compressed, class 2.2); UN2187 (refrigerated liquid); UN1845 dry ice (class 9). Asphyxiant and toxic above about 5% in air; heavier than air.