Manya Rathore
Research expert covering India
Global energy industry - statistics & facts
As populations grow and low-income countries move towards urbanization, the global demand for energy is continuously increasing. Despite a drop in 2020 due to a reduction in economic activities during the coronavirus pandemic, the global primary energy production has grown by 60 percent since the beginning of the century. China accounts by far for the largest energy production and consumption in the world, as the Asian country is one of the most populated.
Oil and gas companies dominate the energy sector
Oil and gas producers have historically been the largest companies within the energy sector, as most of them are involved in various levels of the energy supply chain. State-owned enterprises such as Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) regularly rank as the top energy companies by revenues generated. This is unsurprising given that petroleum products remain a ubiquitous part of everyday life, being the primary source of energy consumption worldwide.Renewable energy outlook
Although over 85 percent of the primary energy consumed worldwide was generated using fossil fuels in 2024, their contribution to the energy mix is forecast to decrease in the next decades, and renewables are projected to represent 17 percent of the global primary energy demand by 2050. Nevertheless, this would be insufficient to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to a recent estimate, this would be accomplished only if renewables accounted for a 78 percent share of global energy supply by that year.Energy transition in focus
In recent years, many governments have begun preparing their energy sector for a transition to emission-free sources. As the general awareness of humanity’s environmental footprint grows, so does the demand for greater worldwide investment in sustainable energy. However, despite growing willingness, overhauling our energy systems while maintaining energy integrity and security remains a huge undertaking, and the clean energy share in our electricity mix was still less than 50 percent in 2024. With the Russia-Ukraine war laying bare the issues surrounding import dependency (largely for fossil fuels), a quicker move to building up global renewable capacity, particularly in Europe, is underway.
