Grid decarbonisation
Electrifying cars and heating only cuts emissions as fast as the grid behind them is clean. This page tracks how clean each major grid is now, what it is made of, and when each country says it will reach net zero.
How clean is each grid?
Low-carbon means nuclear plus all renewables, as a share of electricity generated. Hydro and nuclear explain nearly every country at the top of this list — wind and solar are what is moving the countries in the middle.
What each grid is made of
The same low-carbon share can be built in very different ways, and that shapes how hard the last stretch is. France's 94% is nuclear and hydro, already firm. Germany's is weather-dependent and needs storage and flexibility to finish the job.
Direction of travel
Two decades of low-carbon share. The UK is the fastest large-grid decarbonisation on record; China is adding clean generation faster than anyone in absolute terms while its share climbs slowly, because demand is climbing too.
From coal exit to net zero
For countries with both dates set, the gap between switching coal off and reaching economy-wide net zero is where the hard work sits: industry, heat, aviation, agriculture.
Net-zero targets, and how binding they are
A target in primary legislation is a different object from a speech at a summit. This table separates the two, because the distinction has repeatedly mattered.
Read the status column carefully. "In law" means a binding statutory duty. "Policy" means a government strategy document that a later government can rewrite without legislating. "Pledge" means an international announcement with no domestic legal force. The United States moved from the first category toward the last between 2021 and 2025 without changing its stated 2050 date.
Live: the GB grid
The one number on this site that changes every half hour. Great Britain only — shown because it is the clearest illustration of what a decarbonising grid actually looks like hour to hour.
Latest coverage
Headlines from third-party publishers, linked in full. Nothing here feeds the figures above — it is context, not source data. All headlines.