PRESENT ENERGY USE - Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 15

At what rate is energy consumption growing?
The world energy consumption grew by an average 2.2% annually between 1971
and 2006, which is approximately equivalent to a doubling of consumption every
30 years. However, growth is uneven among different sources of energy: annually,
it is 1.8% for coal, 1.3% for oil, 2.0% for gas, 0.7% for nuclear, and 6.6% for
renewables. It is also very uneven across nations. In developed countries growth
is 1.4% per year, but in developing countries it is 3.2% each year. The total en-
ergy consumption in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment (OECD) countries stabilized from the year 2000 onward and was recently
surpassed by non-OECD members.
The main drivers of energy growth are population growth and increased energy
consumption “per capita.”
What is the relationship between population growth and energy
growth?
Population growth is one of the major determining factors in the increase in energy
consumption. Between 1850 and 1990, the average annual population growth was
1.1% and the total energy consumption growth was 2.2%.
The evolution of population growth over the last 12,000 years is given in Table
2.2 .
Projections indicate that the population of the world could reach 8.6 billion in
the year 2050 and 10.2 billion in the year 2100. Because population growth is one
of the main factors determining energy consumption in the next few decades, it
is important to list the factors that could determine reductions in this growth. The
main causes of population growth are unplanned pregnancies, desire for large fam-
ily size, and population momentum (a consequence of people having children at a
young age).
Table 2.2 Population and stages of development