Businesses worldwide rely on independent and authoritative data to inform their energy transition strategies and investment decisions. Renewables continue to scale at pace, with record highs in 2023 and China adding more renewable generation than the rest of the world combined. But fossil fuels grew as well to meet the rising demand for energy globally. As a result, the share of fossil fuels in world energy demand remained stubbornly stuck around the 80% mark.
With record CO2 emissions as well in 2023, this recent data should serve as a timely reminder for the world to redouble efforts to reduce carbon emissions and reach net zero. In particular, we should do more to provide finance and capacity to support the building of more low-carbon energy sources in the Global South, where demand is growing at a rapid pace.
COP28 and rhetoric from world leaders on the energy transition demonstrates the ambition to reduce the world’s fossil fuel dependency. However, this ambition is futile unless it is matched with drastic and coordinated actions resulting in real and immediate impact on climate change mitigation.
The Statistical Review of World Energy is the perfect opportunity for us to take a step back and examine the reality of our energy usage to understand just how far we must go on this transitional journey. While progress has been made, 2023 was unfortunately another record year for the consumption of fossil fuels and emissions from energy. With global temperature increases closing in on 1.5°C, we are also seeing a real disconnect with the Paris goals and the progress of the transition is too slow.
The Energy Institute aims to provide an objective, independent and comprehensive evidence base for decision makers in governments, businesses and civil society grappling with these profound challenges. In this second Statistical Review under the Institute’s custodianship, we report on another year of highs in our energy hungry world. Record consumption of fossil fuels and record emissions from energy, but also record generation from renewables, driven by increasingly competitive wind and solar energy. The Energy Institute in collaboration with KPMG and Kearney brings you the 73rd Edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy.
We hope that this report will help governments, world leaders and analysts around the world move forward, clear-eyed about the challenge that lies ahead, and ready to take a lead in promoting and enabling the use of clean energy across the world.
