What leads success in achieving low-carbon emissions?

With the increasingly popular race for countries globally to sustain the goals aligned in the Paris Agreement and reach Net Zero (or Negative Emissions) by 20100, it is important to analyse with the currently available data those regions which are successfully adopting a winning strategy towards a lower carbon footprint.

Drawing on information and data from the Electricity Map we can analyse countries' carbon intensity based on their production and consumption:



Key Findings:


  • All energy mixes for low carbon footprint countries are driven predominantly by hydroelectricity both in production and emission
  • The second group of energy sources are usually still renewable such as wind power, hydrogen (disclaimer as it is not detailed if it's green hydrogen) or bioenergy, however there is as well the presence of nuclear energy in certain countries
    • This is all in line to the global increase in renewable source energy production since the 1985, especially in hydropower
  • The first country in the world to reach negative greenhouse gas emission today is Bhutan 
    • Bhutan is a country of less than 1 ml inhabitants mostly of Buddhist religion which praise the choice of health and happiness as they're political mantra
    • For this reason, their economy is mostly driven by farming and forestry, where as well the export of logging has been banned and they use hydropower as their electrical source coming from the neighbouring Himalayas
  • Norway exports almost 20% of the energy they produce mostly thanks to the strategic location and the abundant water which allows a great production of hydropower


Overall, the winning strategy for a Zero-Carbon World is to: optimize, electrify and decarbonize.


References:

electricityMap, Available at: https://www.electricitymap.org/map

Our World in Data based on BP Statistical Review of World Energy (2022); Ember's Global and European Electricity Reviews (2022), Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked

Net Zero Emission Tracker, Available at: https://zerotracker.net/

Emma Swewart and Eric Mackres, (2019), Optimize, Electrify, Decarbonize: The 3 Steps to Thriving, Zero-Carbon Cities, World Resources Institute, Available at: https://www.wri.org/insights/optimize-electrify-decarbonize-3-steps-thriving-zero-carbon-cities


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