Fossil Fuels Accounted for 82% of Global Energy Mix in 2023 Amid Record Consumption: Report

Global primary energy consumption hit historic highs in 2023, the hottest year on record, with oil and coal dominating the energy mix. Renewable accounted for 15% of the total – the highest share in history but still far from what is needed to curb global warming.

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Our “energy hungry” world chewed through 1.5% more planet-warming fossil fuels last year than in 2022, with coal, oil, and natural gas comprising 82% of the global energy mix, according to the Energy Institute’s latest report on world energy.

Oil and coal accounted for a third and a quarter of the world’s energy consumption, which last year reached a historic high, up 2% from 2022. The record consumption was driven by a spike in energy demand, more than half of which came from the Global South, where energy demand is growing at twice the global rate.

But this is not the only energy record that was broke last year – the hottest year in history. According to the 73rd annual edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy released last week, the increase in fossil fuel consumption – coal in particular – led to 40 gigatonnes carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the highest level ever recorded, up 2% from 2022.

Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency partly blamed the rise in CO2 emissions on a drought-driven shortfall in hydropower generation. Without it, the agency said, global emissions would have likely declined last year.

Coal, the cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single-largest source of carbon emissions, responsible for over 0.3C of the 1.2C increase in global average temperatures since the Industrial Revolution. It is also a major contributor to air pollution. 

Despite the negative global trend, not every country ramped up fossil fuel prouction. In Europe, fossil fuels dipped below 70% for the first time ever, while in the US – which remains the world’s third-largest consumer of coal – consumption of the fuel has halved in the last decade. These changes also led to a significant decrease in CO2 emissions in both regions: 6.6% in the EU and 2.7 in the US.

Leading coal consumption globally are China, which burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, and India, which is now burning more coal than Europe and North America combined.

On the other hand, China is also leading the global renewable race . The nation accounted for 55% of all renewable energy additions in 2023, more than the rest of the world combined. This presents a real opportunity to triple global capacity by 2030, a target set at last November’s UN climate summit COP28 in Dubai. And yet, clean energy sources still only accounted for 15% of the world’s energy mix last year – a record high but far from what is needed to curb global warming. Solar and wind made up 8% of the total.

Speaking with the Financial Times, chief executive of the London-based Energy Institute Nick Wayth said the world still has a long way to go before renewables dominate energy mix. “Clean energy is still not even meeting the entirety of demand growth,” he said. “Arguably, the [energy] transition has not even started.”

“In a year where we have seen the contribution of renewables reaching a new record high, ever increasing global energy demand means the share coming from fossil fuels has remained virtually unchanged at just over 80% for yet another year,” said Simon Virley Vice Chair and Head of Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG in the UK. “With CO2 emissions also reaching record levels, it’s time to redouble our efforts on reducing carbon emissions and providing finance and capacity to build more low carbon energy sources in the global south where demand is growing at a rapid pace.”

Still, there is reason to be optimistic, with the IEA forecasting $2 trillion in clean energy technologies and infrastructure investments this year, nearly double the amount going to planet-warming fossil fuels. The Group of Seven (G7) – which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – reached an agreement in April to exit coal in the first half of the 2030s, marking a significant first step toward the international pledge to “transition away” from fossil fuels and phase out unabated coal power made at COP28 last year.