Ember Yearly Electricity Data — The Definitive Reference

1. What Ember Yearly Electricity Data Is

Ember is an independent energy think tank that compiles and publishes global electricity data with the stated aim of accelerating the shift to clean power. Its flagship output has two faces that practitioners routinely conflate: the Yearly Electricity Data dataset — the underlying open data file of generation, demand, capacity, and emissions by country and fuel — and the Global Electricity Review, the annual narrative report built on top of that dataset each April. When a methodology statement cites “Ember 2026,” it is almost always citing figures from the Global Electricity Review 2026, which draws on the Yearly Electricity Data covering calendar year 2025.

For corporate GHG accounting, Ember’s role is specific: it is a source of the country-level electricity grid carbon intensity used in location-based Scope 2 reporting for countries that do not maintain their own authoritative factor set. It sits alongside the IEA Global Energy Review as one of the two dominant cross-jurisdiction grid-data sources, and the two differ in ways that matter operationally — covered in full in section 3.

Three properties make Ember unusually well-suited to that role. First, coverage: the dataset spans 215 countries, with the latest data year covering 91 countries that together represent the large majority of global electricity demand, and a long backcast for trend work. Second, openness: the data is published under a permissive open licence that allows redistribution and integration into derivative products such as calculator software, with attribution. Third, cadence: a full annual rebuild each April plus monthly electricity-data updates through the year, giving a shorter effective lag than slower-moving annual datasets.

2. Chain of Custody — From National Statistics to Corporate Inventory

Every Scope 2 figure that relies on an Ember grid intensity traces back through a specific chain. Any audit committee member, head of sustainability, or assurance partner should be able to draw this before signing off on a global Scope 2 disclosure.

3. Ember vs IEA Global Energy Review

Ember and the IEA Global Energy Review are the two cross-jurisdiction sources practitioners reach for when no national grid factor exists. They overlap heavily and are frequently treated as interchangeable, but they are built differently and serve different parts of the inventory. The distinction matters because mixing them silently, or citing the wrong one, produces inconsistency that verifiers flag.

4. The 2025 Headline — What the Data Shows

The figures in this section are Ember Global Electricity Review 2026 publication figures for calendar year 2025. They are not held in the GreenCalculus MasterBrain — the MasterBrain carries per-country CO₂ intensities, not generation-mix shares or absolute TWh — so they are cited directly to Ember’s own publication rather than reconciled against an internal source.

Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026 (data year 2025). Figures are Ember publication figures, not GreenCalculus MasterBrain values. A global power-sector CO₂ tonnage and a single global gCO₂/kWh average are not held in the writing-project reference; where needed they should be sourced from Ember’s own publication and labelled as such.

5. Generation by Source — The Coal Crossover

The single most-cited finding of the 2025 data is the crossover: renewables (solar, wind, hydro, and other renewable sources together) surpassed coal in the global electricity mix for the first time in over a century, while coal’s share fell below one-third. The chart below shows the approximate 2025 global generation mix as reported by Ember.

Shares are Ember GER 2026 figures, rounded for display; coal 33.0% and gas 21.8% are reported figures, the remaining splits are approximate and shown for composition only. Solar’s share rose from 6.9% to 8.8% across the year. Renewables (solar + wind + hydro + other renewables) total ~33.8%, exceeding coal.

6. Regional Breakdown

Aggregate global numbers conceal substantial regional divergence, and that divergence is exactly what makes a per-country dataset more useful than a single global figure for corporate inventories. Two of the largest historical contributors to rising fossil power — China and India — recorded falls in fossil generation in 2025, while several advanced economies saw power-sector emissions rise on cyclical demand.

The operational consequence is direct: a multinational with load in China and India saw those countries’ location-based factors fall in the 2025 data year, while load in the EU and US sat against broadly flat-to-rising intensities. A global average would mask both movements; the per-country dataset captures them.

7. Power-Sector CO₂ and Carbon Intensity

The output of Ember’s data that matters most for Scope 2 is per-country carbon intensity: the average CO₂ emitted per unit of electricity generated, expressed in kg CO₂/kWh (or, equivalently, g CO₂/kWh). It is derived from each country’s full generation mix and the emission rate of each source — coal-heavy grids carry high intensity, hydro- and nuclear-heavy grids carry very low intensity.

One characteristic of the Ember location-based intensity is worth stating plainly, because it shapes how the number should be read and disclosed. Ember’s published grid intensity is a power-sector CO₂ intensity — it reflects carbon dioxide from electricity generation. It is the same dataset the live Scope 2 Electricity Calculator reads; the per-country figure shown in section 8 and the value the — shortcode renders are the same underlying number at different decimal precision.

8. Country Grid Intensity — The Reference Table

The table below lists the per-country location-based grid CO₂ intensities GreenCalculus serves from the Ember Yearly Electricity 2025 dataset, in kg CO₂/kWh, data year 2025. These are the live values resolved by the — shortcode and the Scope 2 calculator engines. The shortcode renders at three decimal places; the precision-reference values below carry the full stored precision.

Two countries are exceptions to the Ember source. The United Kingdom resolves to the DEFRA 2025 factor (0.177 kg CO₂e/kWh), and the United States resolves through EPA eGRID 2023 subregions, with a national reference value of 0.350 kg CO₂/kWh — there is no Ember national row for the US. The DEFRA and eGRID exceptions reflect the standard hierarchy: a national authoritative source is preferred over the cross-jurisdiction default where one exists.

Live values resolved by GreenCalculus from MasterBrain grid.<iso3>.electricity.location_based (Ember-tagged, data year 2025), plus DEFRA 2025 (GB) and EPA eGRID 2023 (US). The — shortcode renders these at three decimal places (e.g. France 0.041); the figures above are shown at full stored precision. Ember intensities are CO₂-only power-sector intensities. Some small territories may carry an older Ember vintage where 2025 data was unavailable.

8.1 Before the Pivot — Superseded IEA 2026 Values (No Longer Served)

Before the v6.54.0 grid pivot, GreenCalculus served IEA Global Energy Review 2026 grid emission factors for these countries. Those values are now superseded and no longer served by the live shortcode; they are shown here only to document the before/after of the pivot. Do not cite them as current.

“Live now” values are the Ember 2025 location-based intensities at the three-decimal precision the shortcode renders. “Superseded” values are the IEA Global Energy Review 2026 factors served before the v6.54.0 pivot, retained as a dormant fallback only and never returned to readers under normal operation. The two columns are different metrics from different sources — not the same number revised. The Norway pair illustrates this: the direction of the difference is not uniform across countries.

9. How Ember Plugs Into Corporate GHG Inventory Work

Ember’s role in a corporate inventory is specific and well-defined. It slots in at three points, each governed by the relevant accounting standard.

9.1 Scope 2 Location-Based Reporting

Under the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, every Scope 2 inventory must report a location-based figure reflecting the average grid intensity where consumption occurred. For UK facilities, DEFRA is the authoritative source; for US facilities, EPA eGRID at the subregion level; for most other countries, the Ember per-country intensity is the default that fills the gap. See the location-based Scope 2 glossary entry for the underlying definition.

9.2 Scope 3 Upstream Energy

For Scope 3 Category 3 (fuel- and energy-related activities), the per-country generation intensity is one input to the calculation, while transmission and distribution losses are handled separately against country loss-rate data. Ember’s electricity intensity feeds the generation side; the T&D side is a distinct accounting decision (Scope 3 Category 3).

9.3 Transition-Plan and Sectoral Context

Under CSRD ESRS E1 and IFRS S2, corporates disclose the strategic context for their decarbonisation plan. Ember provides the sectoral baseline — renewable share trajectory, solar deployment, regional grid decarbonisation — against which a corporate plan can be benchmarked. This is Ember’s narrative use case, distinct from its numerical-factor use case.

10. Interaction with GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance

The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance introduced dual reporting: every Scope 2 inventory reports both a location-based figure (average grid intensity) and a market-based figure (contractual instruments). Ember’s role is exclusively in the location-based half. The market-based half draws on contractual instruments and, where none exist, residual-mix factors that Ember does not publish — see the location-based vs market-based comparison and the market-based glossary entry.

The Guidance establishes a quality hierarchy for location-based factors: the most granular publicly available factor for the area where consumption occurred, consistent with the consumption period. For the US this means the EPA eGRID subregion factor; for the UK, the DEFRA factor; for most other countries, the Ember national intensity is the most granular publicly available authoritative source.

One nuance often missed: Ember national intensities do not provide subnational granularity for countries that publish it. Where subnational factors exist and are operationally appropriate — US eGRID subregions, and national subnational publications elsewhere — they should be used in preference to the Ember national figure. The Ember intensity is the default when subnational granularity is unavailable or immaterial.

11. Interaction with CSRD ESRS E1, IFRS S2 and CDP

CSRD ESRS E1 and IFRS S2 are the two dominant mandatory climate-disclosure frameworks in 2026 practice, and both rely on cross-jurisdiction grid data for multinational Scope 2 calculations. Under ESRS E1, in-scope corporates disclose Scope 1, Scope 2, and material Scope 3 emissions; the location-based Scope 2 disclosure draws on national factor sources where available and Ember intensities elsewhere — the same hierarchy as the GHG Protocol.

Under IFRS S2, corporates in adopting jurisdictions disclose Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard unless a jurisdictional authority requires otherwise; Ember intensities feed the cross-jurisdiction Scope 2 calculation in the same way. For CDP respondents, the location-based Scope 2 figure reported in the climate-change questionnaire rests on the same factor hierarchy, and the source should be disclosed in the methodology fields.

12. Interaction with SBTi Pathways and RE100

The SBTi sector pathway models for power and other sectors calibrate against historical electricity data. The 2025 data — renewables overtaking coal, solar meeting the bulk of demand growth — feeds the evidence base for pathway recalibration. Corporates with validated targets already in place should not see immediate changes, but those submitting new targets will be benchmarked against pathways that incorporate the latest year’s data.

For RE100 members tracking progress toward 100% renewable electricity, Ember’s per-country renewable-share data provides the market context — how much of each grid is already renewable — against which procurement strategies (PPAs, energy attribute certificates) are planned. See the energy attribute certificates glossary entry for the instruments involved.

13. The 2020–2025 Trend

A single edition tells you what happened in one year; the pattern across editions tells you the trajectory. Two indicators that Ember tracks consistently illustrate the structural shift, shown here as reported by Ember for each data year.

*Figures shown are those Ember reported in the corresponding Global Electricity Review edition: low-carbon share of 39.4% (2023) and 40.9% (2024) from GER 2025; renewables share 33.8% and solar 2,778 TWh (2025) from GER 2026. Cells marked n/a are not in the writing-project reference for that year and are not estimated here. The 2024 solar figure is implied by the GER 2026 statement that 2025 solar of 2,778 TWh was a 636 TWh (30%) increase. The “low-carbon” series (renewables + nuclear) and the “renewables only” series are different measures and are not directly comparable across the rows.

The direction is consistent regardless of which measure is used: solar generation is climbing steeply, the clean-power share of the global mix is rising, and the 2025 crossover of renewables over coal marks the point at which the transition moved from “scaling alongside fossil growth” to “displacing it.” Each Ember edition is the authoritative annual record of that change.

14. How Ember Compiles the Data — Methodology Notes

For practitioners citing Ember in methodology statements, the compilation approach is worth knowing. Ember draws on:

• National statistics. Generation and demand data reported by national statistical offices and grid operators, harmonised into a single comparable structure.
• Regional system operators. ENTSO-E data for Europe, the US EIA, and equivalent regional sources, which provide timely high-frequency data for major markets.
• Modelled estimates. Where the most recent months of a data year are not yet officially reported, Ember produces estimates to complete the year; these are revised in subsequent editions as official data arrives.
• Capacity and weather data. Used to interpret generation trends and separate weather-driven swings from structural change.

The estimation-versus-actuals distinction matters for users: figures for the early months of a data year are largely official, while the latest months may incorporate estimation. For corporate GHG inventory use, the Ember edition matching the reporting year is the operative reference; later-edition revisions are not normally retrofitted into past-year inventories unless the revision is material and the inventory is being restated for other reasons.

15. Common Misuses of Ember Data

Six patterns of Ember misuse that surface routinely in methodology statements and assurance findings:

16. GreenCalculus Implementation — Provenance Chain

The Ember Yearly Electricity 2025 dataset is integrated into the GreenCalculus MasterBrain as per-country grid intensity rows in the canonical grid layer. At the v6.54.0 grid pivot, the live — shortcode and the Scope 2 calculator engines switched to reading these Ember rows for every country except the UK and the US — the IEA Global Energy Review 2026 factors served previously were retained only as a dormant fallback.

17. Limitations and Uncertainty

Ember is the best available open global electricity dataset for cross-jurisdiction Scope 2 work, but it has known limitations that practitioners should disclose.

• Estimation vs actuals. The latest months of a data year may incorporate modelled estimates rather than official statistics; revisions in subsequent editions are normal and expected.
• National data lag. For some countries, the latest official statistics may be older than the data year; Ember bridges the gap with estimation, and confidence is correspondingly lower than for markets with timely reporting.
• Subnational granularity. Ember publishes at national level. Large countries with significant intra-national variation require national subnational sources (e.g. US eGRID subregions) for full granularity; the national figure averages over that variation.
• CO₂-focused intensity. The location-based intensity reflects power-sector CO₂ from generation. Inventories that need a full-GHG location-based factor for a specific market (for example the DEFRA UK factor, which is full-GHG) should use the national source where the definition differs materially.
• Territory vintage. A small number of territories may carry an older Ember vintage where current-year data was unavailable; these should be checked where material.

18. Update Cadence and Future Editions

Ember publishes the Global Electricity Review annually each spring, covering the prior calendar year, supplemented by monthly Electricity Data updates and mid-year insight reports through the year. The release pattern:

The spring release cadence is the working assumption corporate sustainability calendars build around. Inventories filed mid-year or later typically incorporate the edition released that spring; Q1 filings typically still cite the prior edition with a methodology note explaining the choice.

19. Frequently Asked Questions