This paper provides the methodology for the creation of historical country-resolved time series of greenhouse gas emissions from different datasets which are individually incomplete in terms of years, gases, and/or countries. The combination of datasets is carried out using the PRIMAP model (www.primap.org). The resulting time series can be viewed interactively on www.pik-potsdam.de/primap-live. It will be used for climate policy analysis, e.g. the historical responsibility for climate change.