Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 27 countries of the European Union, with a population of about 450 million, produce 3.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, helping heat up and destabilize the global climate. This is according to the new EU report on energy dated 2025.
But the good news is that European carbon dioxide production has fallen precipitously over the past 15 years.
On the other hand, the proportion of Europe’s energy consumption that comes from renewables has skyrocketed from 9% in 2010 to over a quarter today. Energy is more than just electricity, including for instance the heating of homes, offices and factories.
If we just look at electricity, about 47% or nearly half of Europe’s electricity consumption now comes from renewables — solar, wind, water, battery.
Photo by Daniele La Rosa Messina on Unsplash
The report notes, “In 2023 in the EU, the different had the following shares in final energy consumption: transport (32% of final energy consumption in rail, road, domestic aviation, and inland shipping) had the highest share, followed by energy consumed by private households in citizens’ dwellings (26%), industry (25%), commercial and public services (14%), and agriculture, forestry and fishing (3%).”
Since transportation is so crucial, it is worth noting that over 13% of new car registrations are electric in Europe, down slightly from 14% in the previous year. But about a third of new car registrations are hybrid.
Unfortunately, Europe imports 58 percent of its energy, and it imports a lot of fossil gas, which makes its grid dirtier than it would be if all the energy came from Europe itself, since 40% of European-produced energy is green. Politically, Europe still needs to ween itself off Russian fossil gas if it is to adopt and more independent and active role in defending Ukraine from Moscow.
In contrast, only a little over 20% of electricity in the United States is generated by renewables, less than half the proportion in Europe. Under Trump the discrepancy could accelerate, though solar in particular is an extremely robust industry in the US and even Trump may not be able to stand in its way.
The difference is visible with regard to emissions, as well. The United States, with a population of 340 million, puts out 4.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year from energy generation, so Europe is obviously much greener with regard to energy than the United States. It is greener both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis. CO2 missions have also fallen in the U.S. in the past 15 years, from 5.5 bn. metric tons per year to 4.3 bn metric tons per year.
Find more statistics at Statista
But emissions haven’t fallen as low as Europe’s and that could be a problem. I think countries will gradually bring pressure to bear on climate scofflaws like Trump’s America — lawsuits in international venues, boycotts and sanctions will increasingly be applied. Goods may be taxed on the carbon emissions produced to make them. Since Europe is doing a better job with the green energy transition, these actions could bring wealth to Europe and cause it to flee the United States.
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