Carbon intensity of electricity
How much CO2 each kWh generated in France emits, excluding cross-border exchanges, and how this intensity has changed year over year.
Source: RTE through ODRÉ (Open Data Réseaux Énergies)
Right now
Latest reading available at the time this page was generated, not a truly live feed for your browser (static site).
Latest reading available: October 26, 2026 at 12:30 PM.
Source: RTE through ODRÉ (Open Data Réseaux Énergies)
Annual trend
Annual average carbon intensity (gCO2/kWh) and electricity consumption (MW), since 2012.
Latest complete year: 2025, 17.3 gCO2/kWh.−8.9%vs 2024
View data
| Year | Carbon intensity (gCO2/kWh) |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 59.1 |
| 2013 | 61.3 |
| 2014 | 39.8 |
| 2015 | 44.9 |
| 2016 | 55.4 |
| 2017 | 66.1 |
| 2018 | 49.3 |
| 2019 | 34.2 |
| 2020 | 32.7 |
| 2021 | 34.3 |
| 2022 | 52.4 |
| 2023 | 29.7 |
| 2024 | 19 |
| 2025 | 17.3 |
| 2026 | 17.4 |
Source: RTE through ODRÉ (Open Data Réseaux Énergies)
Scope and methodology
Carbon intensity of electricity generation in France (RTE éCO2mix methodology: per-source emission factors applied to national generation). Cross-border exchanges, imports as well as exports, are not taken into account: this is therefore not the intensity of the electricity consumed in France. Nor is it a full life-cycle assessment (LCA). The “live” tile reflects the latest reading available when this static site (Next.js export) was generated, not a truly live feed for the visitor.
- Simple average (not weighted by consumption) of the carbon intensity (gCO2eq/kWh, RTE methodology) over all available readings for the year: sum of the readings divided by their count. A year is flagged incomplete if its coverage is below 90% of a full half-hourly year (current year or collection gaps).
- Known bias of that average: being unweighted, it gives an off-peak half-hour the same weight as a peak half-hour, while the most consumed hours are the most carbon-intensive. The published value is therefore lower than the consumption-weighted average. On the seasonal component alone, at monthly granularity, the measured gap ranges from 0.7% to 5.4% depending on the year between 2019 and 2025, about 1 gCO2/kWh on the 19.0 g of 2024; the intraday component adds to it and works in the same direction. Half-hourly readings are not kept in the repository, so the weighted average cannot be recomputed here.
- Latest real-time reading available at generation time. The gap in tonnes of CO₂ per hour = (instantaneous intensity − reference annual average) × instantaneous consumption (MW) / 1000: the difference between the emissions of the current mix and those of a mix at the year's average intensity, at constant consumption. This is not a counterfactual: no emission was avoided by any decision, the mix is simply less carbon-intensive at that moment than on average. The comparison is internal to the series, not against an external benchmark, and the reference average carries the bias described above.
Source: RTE through ODRÉ (Open Data Réseaux Énergies). RTE (French electricity transmission system operator). License: Open Licence / Etalab 2.0.