Energy Conversion Efficiency and Carbon Intensity of EU Energy Systems

Industry 5.0 challenges European industries to elevate their systems with the help of technological and digital transformations and at the same time motivates them towards the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Energy system transformations and sustainable transitions are the key concepts for decarbonizing energy sources, believed to greatly contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality. The present study assesses how efficiently the member states of the European Union (EU) convert primary energy into useful energy and how this efficiency affects carbon emissions, using energy data collected by the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission. We analyze the relationships between energy conversion efficiency and carbon emissions based on metrics, including system energy conversion efficiency, carbon intensity of energy use and the energy loss ratio, and report an energy conversion efficiency of 64.22%, with an energy loss of 35.78% and a carbon intensity of 2.0894 Mt CO2/Mtoe. Furthermore, by classifying the member states, we rank them by their success rate in relation to efficient energy conversion and emission reduction. Overall, the current trend in the EU shows that by 2024 the member states managed to increase their energy conversion efficiency and decrease the carbon intensity considerably, compared to previous years.