For seven decades, BP prepared an annual review with objective analysis and an up-to-date collection of data on global energy production, consumption, and emissions. In 2023, BP handed over its “brainchild” to the Energy Institute.

The Energy Institute has set itself the goal of preserving and building on the legacy of the Statistical Review in collaboration with other organizations—BP continues to provide support, KPMG and Kearney, as partners of the Energy Institute, are also committed to providing funding and expertise in the sector.

In keeping with tradition, the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy™ presented its interpretation of data on global energy markets in 2024, provoking critical reflection on how countries with growing populations and economies, such as India, Indonesia, and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, can meet growing energy demand without repeating the fossil fuel-based path of the past.

With the ongoing evolution of the global energy landscape, differences between developed and developing countries remain significant, particularly in terms of how energy is consumed and accessed.

Global average air temperatures in the last two years have regularly exceeded 1.5°C of warming from the pre-industrial age. Extreme weather events underscored this reality: tropical storms in Southeast Asia, and devastating floods in South America and Europe. Widespread droughts in Africa and Brazil, as well as increasing wildfires and heat-related deaths, tunderscore the need for urgent action.

Geopolitical tensions further complicate the energy outlook. From evolving US energy policy to the dramatic impact on Europe of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy security and affordability remain central concerns competing with the need for climate action. These global disruptions are also contributing to a growing bifurcation in energy markets,with divergent regional strategies emerging; some doubling down on fossil fuel consumption and others accelerating decarbonisation pathways.

Energy developments in 2024

• • At 4%, electricity demand growth continued to outpace total energy demand growth, an indicator that the world’s energy system continues to electrify.
  • Wind and solar continued to be the fastest-growing areas of the energy system increasing by 16% in 2024. China was responsible for 57% of new additions with solar almost doubling in just two years.
  • Over the past decade China has nearly doubled its electricity supply.
  • The Asia Pacific region has been at the forefront of realising the benefits of diversifying its energy mix. It accounted for 50% of the avoided fossil fuel use in 2024 followed by Europe at 22%. Excluding hydro, China was responsible for 57% of total global renewable power supply additions in 2024.
  • Bulgaria’s energy demand (0.67 EJ) dropped to its lowest level in 55 years.

Energy-related carbon emissions

• Carbon emissions increased around 1% in 2024 exceeding the record level set the previous year to reach 40.8 GtCO2e.
• Since 2010 renewables and nuclear have avoided emitting around 109 gigatonnes of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, around 2.5 times the total amount emitted globally in 2024.
• China remains the world’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for around a third of global emissions.Energy-related carbon emissions. Along with India, it contributed 62% of the increase in global emissions last year.
• For the second year in succession the US witnessed a drop in emissions with a fall of 36 MtCO2e, 0.7% below its 2023 levels but below its ten-year average decline rate of 1% per annum.
• Adjusting for COVID, European emissions fell for the sixth consecutive year and are nearly 16% below where they were a decade ago and are now three times lower than China’s.
• The phasing out of coal from the energy mix and its replacement with RES led to a record decline in carbon emissions to 31.7 million tons/CO2 in Bulgaria in 2024.

Oil

• The US was the world’s largest oil producer, accounting for a fifth of global production in 2024. Its production is now broadly equal to the combined output of Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation.
• Oil remains the largest source of energy meeting 34% of total global demand in 2024. Although slowing, global demand increased by 0.7% to breach the 101 Mbbl/d level for the first time ever.
• Oil prices continued to fall from their 2023 levels following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Though, on average, they fell by -3%, they remain 27% above their 2019 pre-COVID levels.
• Oil consumption in Bulgaria in 2024 added 2.8% growth and reached the highest levels in the last 28 years

Natural gas

• Global natural gas production rose to 4,124 bcm with the largest producers being the US (1033 bcm), Russia (629 bcm), Iran (262,9 bcm), and China (248,4 bcm) who, together, accounted for 53% of total global production.
• Over the last ten years, China has gone from being the world’s sixth-largest gas producer to its fourth. Its domestic production now meets 56% of its domestic demand.
• Global natural gas demand returned to growth in 2024 rising 101 bcm (2.5%). Its share of global fossil fuels stood at 29% and it met a quarter of total global energy demand.
• After extremely low demand in 2023 (317.2 bcm), the EU added a modest 1.6% growth.
• In Bulgaria, gas demand showed strong signs of recovery with a 7.1% increase, but remained below 3 bcm.

Coal

• For the past three years coal production in the Asia Pacific region has exceeded its demand. The surplus in 2024 was a record with production at over 6% of demand.
• Although coal reached a global record level of demand at 165 EJ, 83% of this was centred in the Asia Pacific region, 67% of which was attributable to China.
• Despite continuing record levels of investment in renewables, coal still dominates China’s electricity sector generating 58% of its output in 2024. In Europe, coal consumption fell 7%.
• For the first time ever, the contribution of coal to meeting Europe’s total energy demand fell below that of nuclear.
• For the second consecutive year, coal demand in Bulgaria reached a new historic low of 0.11 EJ, which is between two and three times lower than the levels in the first two decades of the new millennium;
• India’s demand for coal rose 4% in 2024 and now equals that of the CIS, South and Central America, North America, and Europe combined. Conversely, demand across OECD countries, which have been in decline since 2007, fell by 4% in 2024 against an average decline rate of 6% per annum over the past 10 years.
• On average, coal prices around the world continued to fall, dropping by around 11% in 2024 and by 52% against their record highs in 2023.

Nuclear

• In 2024, nuclear rose 3% to meet just over 5% of total global energy demand. Around two-thirds of the increase in output were in France and Japan who both continued to return plants to service after prolonged outages.
• In China, nuclear energy production reached 450.9 TWh, increasing by 102.2 TWh over the last five years.
• The undisputed global leader is the US, with a production of 823.2 TWh of nuclear energy.

Electricity

• Over the past 10 years, global electricity generation has grown on average at around 2.6% per annum, broadly twice the rate of total energy demand.
• Asia Pacific demand reached 52% of global electricity production in 2024, increasing around 5% to 16,132 TWh.
• North America and Europe rose by 2.2% and 1.5% respectively to reach a collective 9,514 TWh, 30% of global generation.
• With the exception of oil, generation from all sources increased globally in 2024. Wind and solar met 53% of the global increase in generation. Generation from renewables, including hydro, met 32% of global electricity supply last year.
• Of the global fossil fuel fleet, gas saw the biggest increase in generation, growing 2.5%, (172 TWh). Coal grew by 1.2% to reach 10,613 TWh to remain the largest source of generation globally.
• Over the past ten years coal’s share of China’s generation fleet has fallen from 70% to 58%. In India, its share has remained fixed at around 75%.
• In 2024 grid-scale battery electricity storage system (BESS) capacity more than doubled, rising 113% to reach 126 GW.
• In the EU, BESS  grew by nearly 48%, with over 4.8 GW in operation by the end of 2024.

Wind and solar

• Generation from wind and solar increased its share of total global generation from 13% to 15% in 2024.
• The biggest increase in wind and solar output was in the Asia Pacific region at 399 TWh. China was responsible for 91% of the region’s growth and 57% of total global growth. of total global growth.
• Capacity additions of solar outpaced that of wind by 4-to-1 in 2024 with solar reaching a total global installed capacity of 1,865 GW compared to wind’s 1,135 GW. China was host to 47% of the world’s total installed solar and windfarms in 2024 at nearly twice the installed capacity of wind and solar in the US and Europe combined.
• Wind and solar supplied 28% of the European Union’s electricity generation with solar surpassing coal for the first time.

Energy Security

The authors of the Statistical Review of World Energy share their views on an important aspect of the development and transition of energy systems, namely energy security. Their understanding is that investments in renewable energy sources are increasingly seen as a cornerstone of energy security, allowing countries to decouple their energy systems from global fuel markets and geopolitical tensions. Technologies such as wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal energy, which use local resources, reduce the need to import energy from abroad. Furthermore, once built, they have low and predictable operating costs, which protect economies from price fluctuations in international fossil fuel markets and provide stability for national budgets and household bills. Resilience is also improved through diversification away from a single or limited number of energy sources or suppliers. As the world’s leading investor in renewable energy, China is at the forefront of realizing such benefits.

Although renewable energy sources were responsible for one-third of global electricity generation in 2024, they accounted for just over 8% of total global energy consumption. Their potential to provide countries with both clean and independent energy systems remains enormous.

In the same way that renewable energy sources provide energy security through energy independence, energy efficiency and consumption reduction can have the same effect.

However, while renewable energy sources can contribute significantly to strengthening energy security, their deployment, particularly in the case of wind and solar energy, can in turn raise questions about the stability of the electricity grid. Without careful strategic planning, energy security could be achieved at the expense of system stability.

As countries increasingly use wind and solar technologies, their integration and expansion will need to be carefully planned to ensure that when they begin to make a significant contribution, essential ancillary services such as frequency respose, voltage control, inertia, and others are maintained. Combining them with energy storage technologies, synthetic inertia, smart grids, greater interconnection with other grids, and demand response offers ways to ensure the continued stability and resilience of electricity grids.

 

In this energy world, leaders are trying to cope with the chaotic transition in the energy sector, which is characterized by divergent regional trends, infrastructure constraints, and fragmented policies. The key issues that every business leader needs to consider, according to Wafa Jafri (Lead Energy and Natural Resources Strategy and Partner, KPMG in the United Kingdom), include:

• What does it mean for your strategy when the energy mix is shifting, but not in the way many expected, with gas, oil and coal continuing to play significant roles?
• How do you respond when electricity demand surges, renewables can’t keep up everywhere, and energy systems are already straining under the pressure?
• Are your strategies focused where progress is happening – not just where it’s expected?
• How are you preparing for a market where trade flows are shifting, policy signals are mixed, and volatility is here to stay?
• Can your business thrive in a world where complexity, fragmentation, and disruption are now the norm?