Countries With the Cleanest Electricity Grids 2023

About This Dataset

Carbon intensity of electricity generation in 2023, in grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour, ranked from lowest. A lower number means each unit of electricity carries less emissions. Covers countries that generated at least 10 TWh of electricity in the year, so very small island grids do not dominate the ranking.

Analysis

Nepal had the cleanest electricity in the world in 2023 at 23.4 gCO2/kWh, with Ethiopia, Bhutan, Paraguay and Costa Rica all under 25 grams. France sits eleventh at 53.3 g - notably higher than its 2024 figure of 40.5 g, reflecting how much its nuclear output recovered between those two years. New Zealand at 87.2 g and Venezuela at 91.9 g complete the list, the only two entries above 85 grams. The whole top ten fits within 15 grams of each other, so ranking positions inside that group shift easily from year to year.

Source: Ember - Yearly Electricity Data

Key Findings

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Venezuela leads in Electricity CO2 Intensity (gCO2 per kWh) with 91.90 in 2023.

📊

Average Electricity CO2 Intensity (gCO2 per kWh) in 2023: 44.46 · median: 30.50.

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Gap in 2023: Venezuela is 3.9× larger than Nepal.