Emissions Factors 2023

The Emissions Factors database includes the following indicators related to emissions from electricity and heat generation: 

• CO2 emission factors from electricity and heat generation for world countries (in CO2 per kWh, 1990 to 2021).
• CO2 emission factors from electricity only generation (CHP electricity included) for world countries (in CO2 per kWh,1990 to 2021).
• Latest year (2022) CO2 emission factors for OECD countries and selected non-OECD countries based on provisional electricity generation data (in CO2 per kWh, 2021).
• Correction factors for CO2 emissions induced by electricity losses in the grid (in CO2 per kWh,1990 to 2021).
• Correction factors for CO2 emissions induced by electricity trade for OECD countries (in CO2 per kWh,1990 to 2021).
• CH4 and N2O emission factors from electricity generation (in CO2eq per kWh,1990 to 2021). 
• Emission factors by fuel from direct combustion in other sectors than electricity and heat production (in CO2 per kg of fuel).

Important announcement:

The IEA has released a new pilot database including the life cycle emission factors corresponding to national electricity grids. The pilot database assesses and compile reliable data to provide a global harmonized database, in near future on an annual basis. The pilot database (IEA Life Cycle Upstream Emission Factors) is now accessible free of charge.

Following the release of this database, the Emissions Factors database has been amended to include the factors published in the pilot database. Please refer to the documentation file for details on the life cycle emission intensities covered in the new pilot database.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Important licence information

Single user or multi-user?

Single and multi-user licences can be purchased directly online. These licences are exclusively for a single company or group and do not allow you to do work with third parties or put the data in a model for which the derived data would be visible or available to third parties (see below).

A single user licence is appropriate as long as only one person can access or view the data. If other users were able to view even the results of the calculations in a shared internal tool then you would need a licence to reflect all the users – if they are in different locations then a global licence would be needed. 

We would therefore expect all multinationals to purchase the global licence (unlimited users, multiple locations).

Furthermore, if you intend to publish the results in your Annual Report then an (unlimited users, multiple locations) licence is required.

Do I need a contract or permission?

If you are doing work for clients, i.e. third parties, e.g. calculating or verifying their carbon footprint you need to enter into a separate Agreement and pay a fee as this usage is not permitted under our standard terms and conditions. 

If you intend to use the data in any type of modelling for the purpose of creating derived data or derived products, and any services to distribute or display such derived products you need to sign an Agreement and pay a fee.

If you intend to have such usage, or have questions please contact datasales@iea.org.

The IEA reserves the right to check the customer's compliance with the terms and conditions.