Europe is far from completing its energy transition

Receive free visual and data journalism updates

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding visual and data journalism News every morning.

Despite the EU’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, only a handful of European countries have successfully decarbonised, according to data from energy think-tank Amber.

Sweden was the first member state to completely phase out fossil fuels in electricity generation, using a mix of nuclear and renewable energy. Poland, on the other hand, is the most dependent on fossil fuels, which still account for 75 percent of production.

Germany, the biggest producer of renewable energy in Europe, plans to phase out nuclear power completely in April 2023 and continue to use large amounts of coal. The government plans to shut down all coal plants by 2038.

Jonathan Vincent

Our Other Charts of the Week

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are the countries most exposed to automation, where it could affect more than a third of the labor force, according to a new OECD report. In contrast, the UK and Luxembourg are at the lowest risk, with only 19 per cent and 17.7 per cent of their workforces at risk.

The jobs most at risk are those in low- and medium-skill jobs such as construction, farming and transportation, while high-skilled occupations such as management and social service professions are still at low risk from being automated, despite advances in artificial intelligence.

The report found that while AI has replaced some tasks in high-skilled occupations, many skills still rely on human labor.

Joanna S. Cao

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

According to the Pew Research Center, which looks at the 2024 presidential election between Joe Biden, 80, and Donald Trump, 77, nearly half of Americans consider 50-59 to be the best age for commander-in-chief, while more than a quarter consider 60 or older to be the optimal age.

Twenty percent of all respondents considered a president aged 30 or 40 to be ideal, but that figure rose to 48 percent among adults under the age of 30.

Of the 46 US presidents, 54 percent were in their 50s at the time of their inauguration, 26 percent were older, and 20 percent were younger. The youngest elected president was John F. Kennedy at 43. (Teddy Roosevelt was 42 when he took office in 1901 after McKinley’s death.)

Ian Bott

You are viewing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is probably due to being offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

According to World Bank data, the production of palm oil and other commodities is responsible for tree-cover loss between 2000 and 2021 in Latin America and the Caribbean and East Asia and the Pacific.

All tree-shade loss is harmful to climate and biodiversity, but the most permanent losses are caused by permanent factors, such as urbanization and the production of soy, beef and other commodities.

Between 2000 and 2021, 11 percent of global tree cover could be lost. The area lost in 2021 alone was equivalent in size to the UK.

amy borett

According to the Met Office, exactly one year ago today, Britain hit a record average maximum daily temperature across the country at 31.5C, surpassing the previous high of 31.1C the day before.

In some places the temperature went above 40C for the first time. Coningsby in Lincolnshire has set a record for the hottest day ever in the UK, with temperatures reaching 40.3C on 19 July, beating the previous record by 1.6C.

The long-term average daily maximum temperature in the UK in July and August is only 18.5C, but hotter summers are on the rise. June 2023 was the warmest since 1884, with a UK temporary average temperature of 2.5C above average.

Graham Parish

Welcome to Datawatch – regular readers of the print edition of the Financial Times may recognize it from its weekday home front page.

Do you have thoughts on any of the charts featured this week – or any other data that caught your attention over the past seven days? Tell us in the comments.

Stay updated with the latest visual and data journalism from Financial Times:

• data points. Weekly column from the FT’s chief data reporter John Byrne-Murdoch.

• The Climate Graphic of the Week is published each week on our Climate Capital Hub page.

• The Climate Graphic: Sign up for the Explained newsletter, free for FT subscribers. Sent every Sunday, a look at the week’s most topical climate data from our expert climate reporting and data visualization team.

• ft follow Instagram For charts and visuals of important stories.

• follow ft data On Twitter for news graphics and data-driven stories from across the FT.