Renewable Grids, Carbon Footprints

Does a cleaner electricity mix mean a lower carbon footprint — and does Brazil's near-renewable grid make it the low-carbon standout?

The horizontal axis is renewable electricity as a share of output (latest, 2021); the vertical axis is CO₂ per person (latest, 2024). The goal quadrant is bottom-right: a clean grid and a light footprint. The two axes are the latest committed value on each, so they are read a point at a time — not as a single common year.

Read position first, then size; the large bubbles in the corners are the story.

Dot area re-encodes per-capita emissions (the same variable as the y-axis), so high emitters read large. The two axes use different latest years — renewables 2021, CO₂ 2024 — so a point is not a single-year snapshot.

• Brazil sits alone in the bottom-right: about 77% renewable electricity (2021) and roughly 2.3 tonnes of CO₂ per person (2024) — the only economy here that pairs a near-clean grid with a low per-capita footprint.
• The United States is the mirror image: despite about 20% renewables (2021) it emits roughly 13.6 tonnes per person (2024), the highest in the set — a footprint dominated by transport, industry and heating, not just the power mix.
• Renewable share and per-capita emissions do not line up cleanly: Germany's roughly 40% renewable share (2021, the highest after Brazil) still sits above both Brazil and India on emissions (about 6.9 tonnes, 2024), and China pairs about 28% renewables with roughly 9.3 tonnes.

• How did each grid get greener over time?→The Green Grid
• Is the per-capita emissions gap widening or closing?→The Carbon Footprint
• How much primary energy does each economy burn?→Climbing the Energy Ladder