Statizoid

Production vs. consumption-based carbon intensity of energy by country

Carbon intensity is measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted per kilowatt-hour of energy. Consumption-based metrics adjust for the energy or emissions embedded in traded goods: it is production-based emissions and energy minus exported goods; plus the energy or emissions from imported goods.

Countries reporting
40
Highest
0.2637 kg CO₂ per kWh
South Africa
Lowest
0.0859 kg CO₂ per kWh
Greece
Median
0.1786 kg CO₂ per kWh
Years covered
25
1995–2019
Data points
1,063

What the numbers show

Production vs. consumption-based carbon intensity of energy is currently reported for 40 countries. The highest value is 0.2637 kg CO₂ per kWh in South Africa; the lowest is 0.0859 kg CO₂ per kWh in Greece.

The median across all reporting countries is 0.1786 kg CO₂ per kWh, and the mean is 0.1829 kg CO₂ per kWh.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 3.

Over the past decade 8 countries rose and 32 fell. The largest increase was in Lithuania (up 30.4%), and the largest decrease in Greece (down 45.6%).

Production vs. consumption-based carbon intensity of energy: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
2 South Africa 0.2637 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 3.0% rising
3 Turkey 0.2612 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 5.1% flat
4 China 0.2583 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 10.5% rising
5 Australia 0.253 kg CO₂ per kWh 2017 up 9.9% flat
6 Switzerland 0.2491 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 10.9% rising
7 South Korea 0.2296 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 9.0% flat
8 Indonesia 0.2293 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 23.4% rising
9 Poland 0.229 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 11.4% falling
10 Belgium 0.2234 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 27.2% falling
11 Russia 0.2198 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 9.4% flat
12 Estonia 0.2056 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 17.3% falling
13 Italy 0.1924 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 13.8% falling
14 Japan 0.1912 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 17.5% flat
15 Czechia 0.1906 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 20.3% falling
16 Austria 0.1861 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 11.6% falling
17 Canada 0.1846 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 9.8% falling
18 Bulgaria 0.1841 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 21.1% falling
19 Slovakia 0.1804 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 5.0% falling
20 India 0.1799 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 10.5% rising
21 Portugal 0.1788 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 8.9% falling
22 United States 0.1784 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 13.1% falling
23 Spain 0.1757 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 9.5% falling
24 Brazil 0.1751 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 15.3% flat
25 Slovenia 0.1741 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 12.3% rising
26 Germany 0.1739 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 13.8% falling
27 United Kingdom 0.1707 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 26.9% falling
28 Croatia 0.1699 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 20.2% flat
29 Lithuania 0.1692 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 30.4% rising
31 Mexico 0.1641 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 30.9% flat
32 Latvia 0.1626 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 up 9.7% falling
33 Romania 0.1598 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 18.4% falling
34 Hungary 0.1534 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 11.3% falling
35 Finland 0.1462 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 8.5% falling
36 Cyprus 0.146 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 28.0% falling
37 Denmark 0.1383 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 20.8% falling
38 France 0.1232 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 13.9% falling
39 Netherlands 0.1214 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 12.3% falling
40 Sweden 0.1187 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 16.5% falling
41 Norway 0.1186 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 6.8% falling
43 Greece 0.0859 kg CO₂ per kWh 2019 down 45.6% falling

About this data

Indicator
Production vs. consumption-based carbon intensity of energy
Unit
kg CO₂ per kWh
Source
Kulionis (2021) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
43 places, 1,063 data points, 1995–2019
Last refreshed

Carbon intensity is measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted per kilowatt-hour of energy. Consumption-based metrics adjust for the energy or emissions embedded in traded goods: it is production-based emissions and energy minus exported goods; plus the energy or emissions from imported goods.