Carbon produced per unit of electricity...

...has nearly halved in the last 30 years in the EU

Continuing our theme of looking at the ways in which humanity could survive despite its burgeoning resource usage and increasing population, we have been increasingly effective at doing more with less as time has gone one. This graph shows the carbon intensity of electricity production in the EU, along with best- and worst-case predictions for the next 15 years.

In short, the move to ever-more efficient energy sources means that we can make more electricity for every unit of CO2 produced. While a lot of work still needs to be done on this, governments and companies around the world are spending billions to find more efficient ways to make energy, and this graph gives me a glimmer of hope that we just might manage it in time.

If you’re interested in total carbon emissions, that’s mostly bad news - they are higher than ever. But, in recent years they have levelled off, and are dropping in most OECD countries. There’s still a lot of work to do before we can be cheerful about our overall emissions.

Source: https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/greenhouse-gas-emission-intensity-of-1 and Enlightenment Now, Stephen Pinker