31. Carbon mountain: historical UK CO2 emissions

CO2 emissions in the UK have been declining since they peaked in 1971.

The interactive version shows you when emissions were below the level for a given year. For example, the last time emissions were at 2017 levels (the latest year for which we have data) was 91 years before, in 1926. (1926 was the year of the general strike in the UK. If we ignore that year the last time emissions were at 2017 levels was in the late 1890s.)

Visualization type: line and area chart

Data source: Global Historical Emissons, PIK from Climate Watch, CSV, 1.5 KB

Technical notes: generated using d3; code

See also: UK’s CO2 emissions have fallen 29% over the past decade by Carbon Brief