• CO2 emissions

Regarding the CO2 emissions caused by the electricity generation sector (column 5), four countries stand out as maximum polluters: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Chile, representing 75.40% of total emissions for the analyzed period. This is due to non-fossil sources being more involved in the composition of their generation matrix, or the fact that these countries have high volumes of generated electricity.

Mexico was the country with the highest level of emissions between 2000 and 2017, with an annual average of 126.31 MTm, depending on the high level of fossil sources of the total electricity generation in the period, at 80.05%. The country with the second highest level of emissions was Argentina, with an annual average of 44.2 MTm emissions, because of the participation of fossil sources in its energy matrix, which amounted to 63.06% in the period observed. The third country with the highest level of emissions was Brazil; considering that it has been strongly oriented towards electricity generation with non-fossil sources in the period, at 86.65%, the result can be explained by its high volume of generation, annually emitting an average of 40.9 MTm. Venezuela had an annual average emission level of 22.0 MTm, which is explained by the high volume of electricity generation and by the high participation of fossil sources in the studied years, at 30.33%. Finally, Chile had an annual average of 21.45 MTm of emissions of CO2, which could be explained by its fossil-source-dominated generation of electricity, at 53.43%.
