World Energy Consumption
World Energy Consumption refers to the total energy used by all of human civilization.
Typically measured per-year, it involves all energy harnessed from every energy source we use, applied towards humanity's endeavors across every industrial and technological sector, across every country. Being the power source metric of civilization, World Energy Consumption has deep implications for humanity's social-economic-political sphere.
Institutions such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and the European Environment Agency record and publish energy data periodically. Improved data and understanding of World Energy Consumption may reveal systemic trends and patterns, which could help frame current energy issues and encourage movement towards collectively useful solutions.
According to IEA (2012) the climate goal of limiting warming to 2 °C is becoming more difficult and costly with each year that passes. If action is not taken before 2017, all the allowable CO2 emissions would be locked-in by energy infrastructure existing in 2017. Fossil fuels are dominant in the global energy mix, supported by $523 billion subsidies in 2011, up almost 30% on 2010 and six times more than subsidies to renewables.
Fossil energy use increased most in 2000-2008. In October 2012 the IEA noted that coal accounted for half the increased energy use of the prior decade, growing faster than all renewable energy sources. Since Chernobyl disaster in 1986 investments in nuclear power have been small.
| Energy use (PWh) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fossil | Nuclear | Renewable | Total | |
| 1990 | 83.374 | 6.113 | 13.082 | 102.569 |
| 2000 | 94.493 | 7.857 | 15.337 | 117.687 |
| 2008 | 117.076 | 8.283 | 18.492 | 143.851 |
| Change 2000-2008 | 22.583 | 0.426 | 3.155 | 26.164 |
1PWh=1000TWh
Read more about World Energy Consumption: Trends, Energy Supply Vs. End Use, Emissions, Primary Energy, By Country, By Sector, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words world, energy and/or consumption:
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“The very presence of guilt, let alone its tenacity, implies imbalance: Something, we suspect, is getting more of our energy than warrants, at the expense of something else, we suspect, that deserves more of our energy than we’re giving.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)