US is Leading the Global Energy Transition

(17 December 2021) With the global energy transition gaining momentum, we've employed Knoema's public data repository to rank leading economies by their energy transition progress. Knoema’s Global Energy Transition Ranking is based on four indicators: all-electric car stock, using a dataset from the International Energy Agency; wind and solar electricity capacity data, from the International Renewable Energy Agency; and net change in CO2 emissions from fossil fuels combustion between 2010 and 2020, from Global Carbon Atlas.

Here are key findings:

• The U.S. is leading the global energy transition. It has the world’s second-largest stock of all-electric cars and second-largest wind and solar electricity generation capacities, and it is far ahead of the rest of the world in reducing С02 emissions over the past decade: U.S. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2020 were 963 million metric tons of carbon lower than in 2010.
• China, which is the leading country on the scale of adopted renewable energy technologies — stock of EVs and solar and wind electricity generation capacity — is ranked only 24th in the Global Energy Transition Ranking because of the country’s upward trend in CO2 emissions. Between 2010 and 2020, China’s CO2 emissions increased by 2,051 million metric tons of carbon.