The line graph compares the proportion of renewable energy used by six different countries – Finland, Germany, Denmark, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom – between 1971 and 2006.
Overall, the chart shows significant changes in the percentage of using renewable energy throughout the period, with all nations experiencing a noticeable increase, except Finland, which was the only nation exhibiting a decline. It is also noteworthy that, despite an overall drop in the use of renewable energy, the figure for Finland was the highest throughout the entire timeframe, while the opposite was true for the UK, which had the lowest rates of renewable energy used.
Germany and the US witnessed a rapid growth in terms of using renewable energy, with the figure for the former at just above 5% and approximately 2.5% for the latter in 1971. These percentages, then, rose sharply to reach their all-time high of around 13% and nearly 18%, respectively. The similar upward pattern was observed in Denmark, France, and the UK, albeit at a much slower rate, starting at just under 15%, 7%, and 1%, respectively, the figures that then saw an overall rise in the proportion of using renewable energy, despite all fluctuations over the 40-year period.
In contrast, Finland experienced an opposite trajectory over the span, beginning at about 24% in 1971 before decreasing to its low of around 16% in 1987, after which it started to increase to 23% in the final year.