Global Energy Facts

The Energy Institute (www.energyinst.org) publishes an annual statistical review of the world's energy production and consumption. The 2024 edition contains some interesting facts:

The world consumed 620 EJ ≈ 172 000 TWh of primary energy in 2023. Oil, coal and natural gas are the dominant sources (Fig. 1). CO₂-free energy sources such as solar and wind ("renewables"), hydroelectric and nuclear power plants provided less than one-fifth (≈ 19%).

**Fig. 1: World primary energy consumption in 2023 by energy source** (energyinst.org)

As we can see in Fig. 2, despite all the talk about global warming caused by CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, including fossil fuels, is still rising steeply.

**Fig. 2: World primary energy consumption by source since 1980** (ourworldindata.org)

China's energy consumption has already surpassed that of the United States. China and India combined now consume more energy than the United States and Europe combined (Table 1):

*Table 1: Primary energy consumption by region*
Global North	North America	117 EJ	44%
	Europe	78 EJ
	Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan	41 EJ
	Russia and other CIS Countries	40 EJ
Global South	China	172 EJ	56%
	India	39 EJ
	South Asian Countries	41 EJ
	Middle East	40 EJ
	South America	31 EJ
	Africa	21 EJ
World	Total	620 EJ	100%

Energy-poor European countries use energy efficiently, as indicated by low energy consumption relative to GDP (Fig. 3). North America is close to the world average. At the same time, energy-rich Russia does not seem to focus much on efficiency.

**Fig. 3: Energy efficiency of regional economies** (ourworldindata.org)

If we look at per capita consumption, the picture is somewhat different, as countries such as China or India consume enormous amounts of energy in absolute terms, but also have huge populations with still relatively modest living standards (Fig. 4).

**Fig. 3: Energy consumption per capita for different countries & regions** (ourworldindata.org)

As we expect living standards in the Global South to continue to rise as they have in the past, perhaps reaching per capita levels similar to those in Europe by mid to end of this century, global greenhouse gas emissions could follow suit (Fig. 4).

**Fig. 4: Greenhouse gas emissions by year in Gigatons CO₂ equivalent** (energyinst.org)

Will consumption of oil, coal and natural gas decline? Probably not, if the trend of the past continues, where increases in GDP have always been accompanied by increases in energy consumption (Fig. 5, 6 and 7).

**Fig. 5: Oil production by region since 1980** (ourworldindata.org)

**Fig. 6: Natural gas production by region since 1980** (ourworldindata.org)

**Fig. 7: Coal production by region since 1980** (ourworldindata.org)

Since 2000, nuclear power generation has remained more or less constant (Fig. 8), with a sharp increase in China. The decline in Europe is mainly due to Germany, which has now completely shut down all of its nuclear power plants.

**Fig. 8: Nuclear energy by region since 1980** (ourworldindata.org)

Technically, electricity is the easiest form of energy to produce from renewable sources such as solar or wind. In 2023 the world needed about 30 000 TWh of electric energy, but more than 60% was still generated by fossil fuels (Fig 9). So renewables (and perhaps nuclear) have a long way to go. This is to say nothing of what would be needed if other areas of primary energy consumption, such as cars and trucks, were to switch from fossil fuels to electric energy.

**Fig. 9: Electric energy production by source** (energyinst.org)

To learn more, get the Global Energy Report 2024, download the data yourself or play with the charts on ourworldindata.org to do your own analysis.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the Energy Institute and ourworldindata.org for collecting all the data, providing the report and creating all these informative charts. For older reports see BP's Energy Economics website.

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