Your Feedback

Energy News Monitoring

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020: slowdown in energy demand and carbon emissions

The 2020 edition of the annual Statistical Review of World Energy by BP analyses 2019 and notes the unusual decrease of growth in energy consumption and carbon emissions, combined with a trend of moving away from coal toward natural gas and renewables, which together account for more than 75% of the net increase. The review shows that the growth of primary energy consumption slowed to 1.3% in 2019, which is less than half the rate of growth in 2018 (2.8%); carbon emissions associated with energy use rose by 0.5%, less than half the 10-year average growth of 1.1% per year, to some extent reversing the alarmingly high increase in 2018 (2.1%).

At a country level, China was clearly the biggest contributor to global energy growth, accounting for more than three quarters of it, ahead of India and Indonesia, while the US and Germany experienced the largest declines. Overall, at a regional level, energy consumption decreased in Europe and North America, in South and Central America it was below average, while Africa, the Middle East and Asia remained at broadly the same level as the historical averages.

According to the report, all fuels except nuclear grew at a slower rate than their 10-year averages. By individual fuels, the key findings of the report are:

  - Coal consumption decreased for the fourth time in six years and its share in the energy mix dropped to 27%, its lowest level in 16 years. However, in some countries, for example, China, Indonesia and Vietnam coal consumption continued to increase. Global coal production rose by 1.5%, with China and Indonesia accounting for most of the increase, the report said.

  - Oil consumption grew by 0.9%, led by China. OPEC oil production fell by 2 million b/d, the largest decline in this group since 2009, most of it caused by sanctions and economic problems in Iran (1.3 million b/d) and Venezuela (-560,000 b/d).

  - Natural gas consumption increased by 2% (5.3% in 2018), mainly driven by the USA and China while Japan and Russia experienced the largest declines.

  - Renewables account for the largest part (41%) in the energy consumption increase out of all energy sources, with China and Japan leading the way. Wind provided the largest contribution to renewables growth, followed closely by solar.

  - Nuclear consumption rose by 3.2%, its fastest growth since 2004, with China and Japan again providing the largest increases.

Apart from this, at a global level, coal is the dominant fuel for electricity generation, its share is 36.4% (1.5% less as in 2019), with Asia having the highest penetration. The shares of natural gas and renewables rose to record levels (to 23.3% and 10.4% respectively). Although in 2019 renewables generation overtook nuclear for the first time with Europe having the highest indicators, at a total consumption level nuclear energy is still the major source of electricity in this region while natural gas is leading for power generation in North America, CIS, the Middle East and Africa.