Electricity is not Energy

To discover the production and consumption of primary and final energy, by country, by item, by sector, by source, etc., the International Energy Agency publishes its Data & Statistics every year, which gives an excellent overview of the subject.

These calculations do not only take into account CO2 but all greenhouse gases, converted into “CO2-equivalent” – this calculation depends on the duration considered, since all these gases have different atmospheric lifetime.

The difference between the average nuclear energy emissions in the world and in France comes from the enrichment of uranium, which requires large quantities of electricity. In France, electricity being low in carbon (thanks to this same nuclear power), it reduces the CO2 emissions of the entire sector by the same amount.

Main source : Table A.III.2 of the annexes of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report – Group III (page 1335). For oil, ADEME data was used.

Source of the global electricity mix by primary energy source : Shift Data Portal

Source of the global energy mix by final energy source: Shift Data Portal

For example, we do not yet know how to electrify air transport – and it is not certain that this will be possible in the medium term.