In November 2025, emissions from power plants reached 1.16 million tons, and the sector’s carbon intensity was 250 g CO2/kWh, an improvement of 7.7% compared to October. However, in the first 11 months of 2025 total emissions reached 14.07 million tons, mainly due to high emissions from gas-fired power plants, which were the second highest since 2021 and accounted for 55.7% of total emissions for the period. Ag. Dimitrios was the top polluter with 2.3 million tons of CO2 for the 11-month period.
Monthly emissions from each power plant in Greece (that is subject to ETS reporting) are estimated based on the latest available electricity production data (November 2025 for the interconnected network and October 2025 for the non-interconnected islands) and the annual CO2 emissions from ETS (2024), following the methodology and assumptions presented here.
In November 2025, the carbon intensity[1] of electricity production decreased by 7.7% compared to October, reaching 250 g CO2/kWh, mainly due to an increase in electricity generation from RES.
Compared to November 2024, carbon intensity improved by 20.6%. However, there was less of an improvement in annual terms as the average carbon intensity for the first eleven months of 2025 stood at 254.1 g CO2/kWh, down 6.1% compared to the average carbon intensity in 2024. In November, total carbon emissions were 1.16 million tons (-5.9% compared to October).
The impact of RES curtailments on the carbon intensity of electricity production is noteworthy. Based on IPTO’s ISP2 and ISP3 forecasts for the period January to November 2025, RES curtailments reached 1,863 GWh or 7.04% of total RES production. If this energy were used to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the average carbon intensity for this period in 2025 would be 236.3 g CO2/kWh, 7% lower than the actual intensity.
Specifically for November 2025, CO2 emissions from lignite plants reached 0.28 million tons, up 7.3% from October and a four-month high. Although lignite plants covered only 5% of monthly electricity demand, they were responsible for 24% of emissions.
Emissions from gas-fired power plants were 0.67 million tons, down 6.1% compared to October, but still maintaining a high share of total monthly emissions at 57.4%. Emissions from oil-fired plants on non-interconnected islands reached 0.17 million tons, a five-month low, and were 24.8% lower than in September.
Cumulative emissions for the first eleven months of 2025 were 14.07 million tons, the lowest in the last decade for this period of the year, but only 0.2% below 2024 emissions.
More specifically, emissions from gas-fired power plants for the first eleven months of 2025 totaled 7.83 million tons, the second highest since 2021 and 7% above 2024 emissions. They were also responsible for 55.7% of total emissions from electricity generation for the eleven-month period.
Emissions from lignite plants for the same period were 3.14 million tons, the lowest in a decade, even though lignite was responsible for 22.4% of total emissions from electricity production. Compared to the same period in 2024, lignite emissions decreased by 14.3%.
Emissions from oil-fired power plants for the same period were 2.69 million tons, down 2.8% compared to the same period in 2024, but very close to 2023 emission levels (2.66 million tons). Oil accounted for 19.1% of total emissions from electricity production for this period in 2025.
Cumulative RES curtailments for the first eleven months of 2025 are estimated at 1,863 GWh. Avoiding these curtailments and replacing fossil fuel power generation with the curtailed RES gemeration could limit the sector’s total emissions to 13. 08 million tons of CO2, or 0.98 million tons less than actual emissions.
In the first eleven months of 2025, the lignite-fired power plant of Agios Dimitrios remained at the top of the list of polluters with 2.3 million tons. Despite producing just 1.36 GWh, Agios Dimitrios was responsible for 73.7% of emissions from lignite plants and for 17% of total emissions from the sector for this period.
Ag. Nikolaos II remained in second place with emissions of 1.3 million tons, while in third place was Lavrio IV-V with emissions of 0.98 million tons. The list of top five polluters was completed by the Megalopolis V gas plant and the Ptolemaida 5 lignite plant, with emissions of 0.89 million tons and 0.81 million tons, respectively.
On the non-interconnected islands, the five largest polluters were two power stations in Crete, the power stations on the island of Rhodes and the station on the island of Kos. Specifically in Crete, Atherinolakkos recorded emissions of 0.6 million tons and Linoperamata 0.38 million tons for the eleven-month period of 2025. On the island of Rhodes, the Rhodes plant recorded emissions of 0.29 million tons, while the N.Rhodes plant noted emissions of 0.26 million tons. Finally, Kos had emissions of 0.21 million tons, slightly exceeding the emissions of the station on the island of Thira.
According to the revised National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) submitted in January 2025 to the European Commission, the target for 2030 is a maximum of 4 million tons of emissions from all three fuels (lignite, fossil gas, oil). This marks a substantial decrease (-91%) compared to 2013, the year in which thermal power plants first began paying for their carbon emissions under the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
In the final NECP, the estimated emissions for 2025 are 10.2 million tons. However, in the first eleven months of 2025, a total of 14.07 million tons is estimated to have been emitted from the sector, meaning that the sector has exceeded the available carbon budget for 2025 by 3.87 million tons and the country is over the target set in the NECP, which has already been the case since August.
You can explore how electricity sector emissions evolved since 2013, as well as find analyses from previous months here.
[1] Carbon intensity is defined as the ratio of emissions from the three fuels (lignite, gas and oil, including CHP) to the country’s total electricity production from the interconnected grid and the non-interconnected islands.
