The European Union saw a record drop in pollution from fossil fuel power plants last year, according to a new report. Ember, an energy think tank that crunched the numbers, calls it “an unprecedented collapse in coal and gas electricity generation.” Renewable energy is finally starting to take over the power grid.


Fossil fuels dropped to their lowest point since reliable record-keeping started in 1990, making up less than a third of EU’s electricity generation in 2023. Carbon-pollution-free power generation — which includes renewables and nuclear energy — made up more than two-thirds of the electricity mix, and twice as much as fossil fuels.


hat’s encouraging is it’s just continuing that structural decline in fossil fuels,” says Sarah Brown, Ember’s Europe program director. And while records started in 1990, she says, “We think it’s the lowest point ever, because before that fossil fuels were making up the majority and there wasn’t anything else to replace it.”


Coal saw the steepest fall in 2023, generating 26 percent less electricity than the year before. Gas power plants produced 15 percent less electricity last year, the sharpest annual reduction in at least a few decades. All in all, that meant a hefty 19 percent reduction in both fossil fuel generation and planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions. It’s an even bigger drop in power sector pollution than the bloc experienced in 2020 when the covid-19 pandemic shut down business and travel.