Slower reduction of global CO₂ intensity in 2021, with an improvement of 0.5%.

After a slowdown in CO₂ intensity improvements in 2020 (-1.3% compared to a -2.4%/year average over 2010-2019), the global CO₂ intensity declined by only -0.5% in 2021. The fall in CO₂ intensity accelerated in Australia (-7.9%) and in India (-3.5%), where it confirmed a continuous downwards trend, respectively since 1998 and 2015. The CO₂ intensity slightly deteriorated in North America (+0.3%), in the EU, especially in Italy (+1.9%, mainly due to a surge in road transport consumption based on oil) and in France (+2.8%) where the higher intensity was mainly caused by the growing oil consumption in the road transport sector. However, in average, the European indicator remains far below the global mean. Among the largest economies, Brazil and Russia recorded the highest growth rates in CO₂ intensities, respectively +8.7% and +4.6%.