Seven European countries have electricity emissions below 100 gCO2 eq/kWh.
As countries work to decarbonise their electricity grids, a target of 100 gCO2/kWh for power sector carbon intensity is often viewed as an achievable medium-term goal.
Britain, for example, has set itself a 100g CO2/kWh target1 at various times:
the CCC’s fifth carbon budget report concluded that policies should be developed to reduce the power sector carbon intensity to below 100 gCO2/kWh in 2030
— Energy and Climate Change Committee, 2016
Seven European countries are already below the 100 gCO2 eq/kWh goal for emissions from electricity generation. Who are they, and how did they do it?
Europe's Seven Lowest Emissions Electricity Grids
Here are the seven countries, with their carbon intensity of electricity generation2 and their electricity mix3, in decreasing order of emissions intensity, using data from Ember and the Energy Institute compiled and processed by Our World in Data:
| Country | Carbon intensity of electricity generation (2023)a (gCO2 eq/kWh) | Electricity mix (2023)b |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | 79 | Nuclear: 42% Hydro: 19% Wind: 18% Bioenergy: 14% |
| France | 56 | Nuclear: 65% Hydro: 10% |
| Sweden | 41 | Hydro: 40% Nuclear: 29% Wind: 21% |
| Switzer- land | 35 | Hydro: 54% Nuclear: 34% |
| Norway | 30 | Hydro: 89% Wind: 10% |
| Iceland | 28 | Hydro: 70% Other renewables: 30% |
| Albania | 24 | Hydro: 99% |
Albania has the lowest carbon intensity of all, it has an all-hydro grid. The next two up, Iceland and Norway, are also predominantly hydro, then nuclear takes a significant share for Switzerland and Sweden, and nuclear exceeds hydro for France. All six of these countries have a high share of hydroelectricity, so they had a useful head-start in decarbonising, and have all had sub-100 gCO2/kWh electricity emissions throughout this century.
Finland is the only recent arrival in the group. It's now mostly nuclear, hydro and wind, but the fast reduction in its electricity emissions stems from a rapid fall in coal and gas, balanced by a rapid rise in wind and nuclear. Finland now has the highest per capita nuclear generation (6,127 kWh in 2023) in the world4.
The Big Four European Economies
Of the four largest European economies — Germany, Britain, France, Italy — only France has electricity emissions below 100 gCO2 eq/kWh. Here are the data for electricity emissions2 and electricity mix3 for the other three:
| Country | Carbon intensity of electricity generation (2023) (gCO2 eq/kWh) | Electricity mix (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 381 | Wind: 27% Coal: 27% Gas: 15% Solar: 12% |
| Italy | 331 | Gas: 45% Hydro: 14% Solar: 12% |
| U.K. | 238 | Gas: 34% Wind: 28% Nuclear: 14% Bioenergy: 12% |
Britain's carbon intensity from electricity generation was the lowest of those three countries in 2023 (and even lower in 2024). Germany's carbon intensity is even higher than that of the U.S. (the U.S. has 369 gCO2 eq/kWh), and 60% higher than that of the U.K.
Britain's and Germany's energy transitions have taken radically different directions. Britain shut its last coal power station in September 2024, whereas Germany opened its last coal power station in May 2020.
Summing Up
Most of Europe's lowest carbon electricity grids are blessed with good hydroelectric resources, which gave them a head start in decarbonising their grids.
Finland's more recent switch from coal and gas to wind and nuclear has proven very successful in decarbonising its grid, and looks like a strategy to emulate. Britain's somewhat similar switch from coal to wind is also bearing fruit.
Germany's Energiewende, which became in effect a switch from nuclear to wind and gas, while replacing old coal plants with new coal, has done rather less for its decarbonisation. I'll look at Germany's new coal plants in my next blog post →.
Related Posts
References
Footnotes
-
A framework for meeting the carbon budgets, Setting the Fifth Carbon Budget, Energy and Climate Change Committee, House of Commons, 25 April 2016. ↩
-
Carbon intensity of electricity generation, H. Ritchie et al., OurWorldinData.org, 2023.
Data adapted from Ember, Energy Institute. ↩ ↩2 -
Electricity Mix, OurWorldinData.org, 2020.
↩ ↩2 -
Global Electricity Review 2024, Ch.4: Global Electricity Source Trends, Ember, 2024. ↩
