While California’s carbon economy profile improved in some areas in 2022—the latest year for which internationally comparable data were available—it stayed the same or became worse in many cases, relative to the other top 50 polluters across the globe. California’s total renewable electricity generation increased by 2 spots, making it the 10th highest in renewable electricity generation among the top 50 polluting countries in the world. However, unchanged from the previous year, California had the 19th-highest amount of energy-related carbon emissions in 2022. Similarly, in terms of carbon economy, California remained the same at 3rd-highest and its energy productivity ranking remained the same at 6th highest globally. A higher energy productivity indicates that an economy is able to produce more economic output for each unit of energy consumed. Improving energy productivity is an important goal for many policymakers, as it can lead to cost savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved energy security.

On the other hand, California’s rankings continued to slip on some of the per capita metrics. While California’s ranking on energy consumption per capita remained the same compared to 2020, the state’s electricity consumption per capita went down one place from 35th to 36th, a continuation of the trend from 2019 to 2020. California’s fossil fuel consumption per capita also increased by one place (where one is the highest) and its ranking on emissions per capita (where one is the lowest) went down by two places from 27th to 29.

While California maintains a significant lead in electricity generation from renewable sources, with an average yearly growth rate of 1.7% from 2008 to 2023 (compared to the U.S. rate of 0.8% over the same time period), the growth rate has slowed in recent years. In 2023, total renewable energy generation in the power mix was 36.9%, up 1.1% compared to 2022. This placed California at the 4th-highest amount generated, behind the UK, Germany, and Spain.