Electricity generation - Regions — Carbon intensity of electricity generation by country
This dataset provides indicators on electricity generation by source of energy in large (TL2) and small (TL3) regions. Data definition and source The electricity generation mix is based on both official subnational statistics and on estimates (see the data sources). The estimates for areas with missing official...
What the numbers show
Electricity generation - Regions — Carbon intensity of electricity generation is currently reported for 39 countries. The highest value is 583.59 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour in Poland; the lowest is 28.28 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour in Iceland.
The median across all reporting countries is 225.28 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour, and the mean is 252.57 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 21.
Over the past decade 2 countries rose and 37 fell. The largest increase was in Colombia (up 11.1%), and the largest decrease in Luxembourg (down 66.8%).
Electricity generation - Regions — Carbon intensity of electricity: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poland | 583.59 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 21.8% | falling |
| 2 | Estonia | 530.03 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 30.7% | falling |
| 3 | Israel | 498.13 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 25.1% | falling |
| 4 | Australia | 495.23 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 23.7% | falling |
| 5 | Japan | 460.56 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 19.6% | rising |
| 6 | Malta | 437.86 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2022 | down 32.1% | falling |
| 7 | Mexico | 432.78 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 8.4% | falling |
| 8 | Bulgaria | 410.37 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2022 | down 5.0% | falling |
| 9 | Czechia | 388.8 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 14.5% | falling |
| 10 | Germany | 368.45 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 25.1% | falling |
| 11 | United States | 361.96 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 24.2% | falling |
| 12 | Italy | 337.14 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 15.7% | falling |
| 13 | Netherlands | 317.86 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 41.1% | falling |
| 14 | Ireland | 304.2 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 35.8% | falling |
| 15 | Greece | 296.03 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 45.4% | falling |
| 16 | Chile | 282.56 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 44.6% | rising |
| 17 | Croatia | 265.73 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2022 | down 20.9% | falling |
| 18 | Romania | 265.17 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2022 | down 35.1% | falling |
| 19 | United Kingdom | 258.34 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 44.8% | falling |
| 20 | Colombia | 225.28 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | up 11.1% | rising |
| 21 | Slovenia | 204.13 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 28.2% | falling |
| 22 | Hungary | 201.07 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 33.6% | falling |
| 23 | Denmark | 196.82 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 57.9% | falling |
| 24 | Latvia | 176.65 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 32.8% | rising |
| 25 | Portugal | 175.68 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 45.1% | falling |
| 26 | Spain | 172 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 36.3% | falling |
| 27 | Belgium | 168.62 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 24.6% | falling |
| 28 | Lithuania | 165.66 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 51.0% | volatile |
| 29 | Canada | 132.84 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 16.2% | falling |
| 30 | Austria | 132.28 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 27.8% | falling |
| 31 | Finland | 125.37 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 59.7% | falling |
| 32 | New Zealand | 99.27 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 41.7% | falling |
| 33 | Luxembourg | 92.25 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 66.8% | falling |
| 34 | France | 66.86 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 16.8% | falling |
| 35 | Sweden | 59.25 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 13.5% | rising |
| 36 | Costa Rica | 57.87 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 45.9% | falling |
| 37 | Switzerland | 43.77 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 1.1% | rising |
| 38 | Norway | 31.64 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | down 15.0% | rising |
| 39 | Iceland | 28.28 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour | 2023 | up 0.2% | rising |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Türkiye 429.43 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour
- Korea 428.15 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour
- Slovak Republic 130.46 Grammes of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt hour
About this data
This dataset provides indicators on electricity generation by source of energy in large (TL2) and small (TL3) regions. Data definition and source The electricity generation mix is based on both official subnational statistics and on estimates (see the data sources). The estimates for areas with missing official data are based on the electricity generation mix at the national level (based on the issued from the International Energy Agency (IEA) database, the location of electricity generation assets using the Global Power Plant Database (GPPD, Global Energy Observatory et al., 2018) and the harmonised global dataset on wind and solar installations (Dunnett et al., 2020). Electricity generation is estimated by matching energy sources across datasets, calculating each power plant's share of national capacity, and distributing the official regional and national generation accordingly across the different subnational areas. The carbon intensity of electricity generation is defined as the amount of CO2 equivalent emissions produced per unit of electricity generated (gCO2eq/kWh). It is obtained by applying emission factors to the different energy sources. Definition of regions Regions are subnational units below national boundaries. OECD countries have two regional levels: large regions (territorial level 2 or TL2) and small regions (territorial level 3 or TL3). For more information, see the OECD Territorial grid (pdf) and the OECD Territorial Correspondence Table (xlsx). Cite this dataset OECD Regions, Cities and Local Areas database http://oe.cd/geostats. Further information OECD Local Data Portal OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance For questions and/or comments, please email RegionStat@oecd.org.