Energy and Carbon Emissions: Some Global Ground Truths

Amidst all the policy proposals, claims, and counterclaims about energy use and carbon emissions, it’s useful to touch base from time to time with basic current facts. One of my starting points is the Statistical Review of World Energy, published annually (free registration needed to download the report). The report is full of figures and tables, with some text sprinkled in. Here, I’ll just pass along a couple of big-picture fact patterns. This figure shows sources of energy for regions around the world, as well as energy supply by region. Energy is measured by joules, and global energy supply is about 600 exajoules (that is, quintillion joules). The vertical axis shows total energy supply in each region, with the height of the region proportional to energy supply. The horizontal bars then show the share of energy for that region from the main primary sources. (Electricity is not included here because it isn’t a “source” of energy, but rather a way of transmitting and storing energy…