Pablo Rosado

📊 Explore updated data on electricity production in Europe—

Electricity is one major part of how we use energy, alongside transport and heating.

CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data Explorer Explore data on greenhouse gas emissions.

Our colleague @pablorosado.com recently updated our charts with data on GHG emissions from the publication Jones et al. (2025), which in turn relies on data from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) and PRIMAP-hist.

Visit our CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data Explorer:

How much energy can be produced on global land currently used for liquid biofuels? Bar comparison showing energy per year from land currently used for liquid biofuels: Biofuels for transport — 1,400 TWh per year; Solar panels on the same land — 32,000 TWh per year. Side annotations: 31,000 TWh shown for context as the amount of electricity the world generated in 2024; 7,000 TWh per year shown as the amount of electricity the world would need to power all of its cars and trucks if they were electric. Note: This assumes the world uses 32 million hectares of land to grow crops for liquid biofuels, based on net land use which subtracts land allocated to co-products such as animal feed, and assumes solar PV uses 1 hectare of land per GWh. Data source: Energy Institute; Cerulogy; Ember; and author calculations. Chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

The world dedicates a Poland-sized area of land to producing liquid biofuels such as bioethanol & biodiesel. Is there a more efficient way to generate energy?

Putting solar panels on the land used for biofuels, e.g., would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks worldwide to go electric.

Price of lithium-ion battery cells. Line chart showing representative estimates of battery cell prices in constant 2024 US dollars per kilowatt-hour across major cell chemistries from 1991 to 2024. Main insight: a steep fall from $9,210 per kWh in 1991 to about $78 per kWh in 2024, with most of the decline occurring through the 1990s and early 2000s before prices leveled off and gradually declined further. Y-axis labeled $0 to $10,000 with tick marks at roughly $2,000 intervals; x-axis covers years 1991 to 2024. Note: data are expressed in constant 2024 US$ per kilowatt-hour. Data source: Rupert Way (2026) based on Ziegler and Trancik (2021), BloombergNEF, and Avicenne Energy. Chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

📊 Data update: Track battery prices over the last three decades—

To transition towards low-carbon energy systems, we need *low-cost* energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries are the most commonly used.

The image presents a series of line graphs comparing the growth of food supplies and population from 1961 to 2022 across different continents and globally. Food supplies have grown even faster than the population — on every continent. In the footer, data sources are credited to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for 2024. The image is licensed under Creative Commons by Pablo Rosado and Max Roser.

On every continent, food supplies have grown faster than the population—

We just lived through the period with the fastest population growth in human history. Six decades ago, there were three billion people on our planet.

Stacked bar chart showing the number of reported natural disasters globally from 2000 to 2024. Disasters are categorized by type: drought, flood, earthquake, extreme weather, extreme temperature, volcanic activity, wildfire, glacial lake outburst flood, dry mass movement, and wet mass movement. The data source is EM-DAT (2025). The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

📊 Data update: We’ve updated our charts with the latest data on natural disasters.

Tracking the occurrence of natural disasters can save lives by helping countries prepare for future ones.

In our work on natural disasters, we visualize data from EM-DAT, the most comprehensive disaster database.

Global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels are likely to increase this year, while those from land-use change will fall

Bar chart showing estimates of remaining carbon dioxide budgets that give a 50% likelihood of staying below each temperature level, relative to pre-industrial levels. A baseline label shows global emissions in 2025 at 42 gigatonnes (Gt) per year. Three vertical bars show remaining CO2 budgets: stay below 1.5°C — 170 Gt, labeled as 4 years of current emissions, with a note that if emissions stay at 2025 levels the 1.5°C budget will be exhausted within 4 years; stay below 1.7°C — 525 Gt, labeled as 12.5 years of current emissions; stay below 2°C — 1055 Gt, labeled as 25 years of current emissions, with an annotation saying that by 2050 we will have exhausted the 2°C budget unless emissions are reduced now. Footer note states these estimates have uncertainty and depend on changes in non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. Data sources listed as IPCC, Forster et al. (2025) and Global Carbon Project (2025). License CC BY.

How much CO₂ can the world emit while limiting global temperature rise?

Chart showing the global average land-sea surface temperature relative to a pre-industrial baseline, the 1861–1890 average Temperatures have risen by approximately 1.3°C since then (as a measure of climate ,the average over decades) Temperatures in the last couple years have been closer to 1.5°C.

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main drivers of recent climate change.

Here is the global trend, which is similar to the one in the original chart for low-income countries, but not affected (at least not significantly) by the completeness issue in recent years.

Thank you! I'll try to fix this one on our end.
To briefly answer your question: in almost all cases (except if stated otherwise in the chart) income groups follow the latest World Bank classification at the time of publication. So, they are fixed in time.

Thanks @benbarclay.bsky.social and @dvschroeder.bsky.social! I believe the 2023 sudden change might indeed be an artifact. I see for example that data for Syria and North Korea are missing for that year, and happen to have the largest fossil generation among low-income countries.

Greece is turning its back on coal and replacing it with solar and wind

If you're over 30, you're older than most people in the world

Air pollution kills millions each year. But where does it come from?
In our new article, @hannahritchie.bsky.social and I dive into the data.

The graphic presents a line chart illustrating the shift in birth rates among older mothers in Europe. The title at the top states, "Births have shifted to older mothers in Europe," and the subtitle notes that it depicts the estimated share of total births by the age of the mother. The vertical axis is labeled with percentages from 0% to 70%, while the horizontal axis covers years from 1950 to 2023. There are four lines representing different age groups: - Women aged 20-29, shown in a light gray line, which hovers around 30% in the early years and gradually declines over time. - Women aged 30-39, depicted in a prominent brown line that crosses above 50% since 2015, indicating they became the age group with the most births. - Women aged 40-49, represented by a light gray line, which rises slightly in recent years. - Women aged 10-19, also shown in light gray, with minimal levels of births throughout the time period.

Most births in Europe are to mothers in their thirties

🌡 New on @ourworldindata.org:

We added global temperature anomaly charts *coloured by El Nino / La Nina periods*.

Today's "cool" years are warmer than "warm" years of the past.

[New article and charts by my colleague Veronika Samborska and I: ourworldindata.org/global-tempe... ]

Per capita meat consumption by type Per capita meat consumption is broken down by types of meat, and is measured in kilograms per person per year.

Good point, but per capita meat consumption is also increasing: ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-...

More land animals than ever before are slaughtered for meat.

Recent estimates indicate that globally, most animals are raised on factory farms. In the US, where better data and research are available, 99% of livestock is factory-farmed.

Mel made a video about the @goodfoodinst.bsky.social, a nonprofit that's building a sustainable, secure, and just food system with alternative proteins like plant-based and cultivated meat.

Vote for it here: projectforawesome.com/watch?v=aM_z...

#p4a #p4a2025 (4/4)

Björn also made a video about Faunalytics: projectforawesome.com/watch?v=RpQt...

#p4a #p4a2025 (3/4)

I spoke about Faunalytics, an amazing organization that helps advocates make a bigger impact for animals with research and data.

Vote for it here: projectforawesome.com/watch?v=AXuK...

#p4a #p4a2025 (2/4)

For this year's #ProjectForAwesome I met with a few friends who are passionate about making the world better, and we made a bunch of videos about impactful charities we love. 💙

Supporting them is easy: click the links, hit "I'm not a robot" (unless you are), and then "Vote"!

Here my favorite (1/4)

A line graph depicting the average number of days it took to install a gigawatt of solar energy capacity worldwide from 2001 to 2023. The vertical axis represents the number of days on a logarithmic scale, spanning from 1 to 1000 days. The horizontal axis indicates the years from 2001 to 2023. In 2004, the average time was about 1 year, which is marked on the graph. A downward trend shows significant decreases in installation time over the years. By 2010, it took under 30 days, and by 2015, just over 7 days. The most notable point is in 2023, where it dropped to about 1 day on average for installation. The data source is attributed to IRENA (2024), with calculation by Our World in Data, and the chart is identified as CC BY, indicating it is licensed for sharing and adaptation with appropriate credit.

In 2004, it took the world a year to add a gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day

Thanks for the feedback! The discrepancy is within the uncertainty. The absolute numbers come directly from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 – LITHIUM Data Release. In hindsight, presenting percentages with two significant figures would have helped avoid an artificial sense of precision.

NEW | Solar generates more EU electricity than coal for the first time in 2024 🇪🇺☀️

Renewables made up nearly HALF of the electricity mix last year, while fossil power fell to a historic low ⚡

ember-energy.org/lat...

Bar chart showing milk consumption per person across regions. Europe is the highest, followed by North America. Asia and Africa are both below the global average.

Europeans consume more milk and dairy products than in other regions

A chart in three parts showing data on child mortality to make the points that "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time."

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.

All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems.

We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

(Yes, this is my "hello world" in bluesky!)

So, we are just a bunch of humans.
But we give meaning to the Universe.