IEEJ：June ©IEEJ 2023
Special Bulletin
A Japanese Perspective on the International Energy Landscape (643)

June 30, 2023

2022 World Energy Situation Indicated by Renamed Statistical Review ofWorld Energy (1)Ken Koyama, PhD
Chief Economist, Senior Managing Director
The Institute of Energy Economics, JapanOn June 26, the Energy Institute, a London-based international association of energy
industry stakeholders, published the “Energy Institute (EI) Statistical Review of World Energy 2023”
as the successor to the annual BP Statistical Review of World Energy. As introduced 11 times in thisreport, the BP Statistical Review was one of the most representative annual statistics on internationalenergy supply and demand and referred to by energy stakeholders around the world as covering
comprehensive up-to-date data. The EI has taken over the statistical review, leaving it open to freeaccess from all users. BP has committed to cooperate continuously in the compilation of the statistics.
It is extremely gratifying that the statistics with a history of more than 70 years will be retained as EI
Statistical Review.
In 2022, Russia's military invasion of Ukraine from February 24 shook the internationalenergy situation. In order to interpret the global energy situation from various angles based on the EI
statistics, I would like to review the international energy situation in 2022 in two parts. The first part
written in this article focuses on global energy consumption trends in 2022.
First, global primary energy consumption in 2022 totaled 604.0 exajoules (quintillionjoules; hereinafter referred to as EJ), up 1.1% or 6.6 EJ from the previous year. In 2021, global
energy consumption scored a substantial increase of 5.5% or 30.9 EJ in a rebound from theCOVID-19 disaster. In 2020, energy consumption contracted by 3.6% or 20.9 EJ from the previousyear due to the serious impact of the COVID-19 disaster. After sharp changes in two years, global
energy consumption posted a slight increase in 2022. The global energy consumption growth rate of
1.1% in 2022 was lower than the average of 1.4% for the past 10 years (2012-2022). Global
economic growth in 2022 was 3.4% (according to the IMF World Economic Outlook released in
April 2023), topping the global energy consumption growth. A factor behind the smaller global
energy consumption growth might have been the impact of the Ukraine crisis as discussed below.
Second, a region-by-region breakdown of primary energy consumption in 2022 indicatesthat consumption grew by 3.1% in North America, by 4.1% in Latin America, and by 4.3% in theMiddle East. In contrast, however, energy consumption plunged by 3.8% in Europe and by 5.8% in
the former Soviet Union due to the Ukraine crisis. Consumption declined substantially in Europe,
which was plagued with energy price spikes and supply insecurity, as well as in Russia, which saw
an 8.2% drop in energy consumption due to regional destabilization and Western economic sanctions.
Ukraine's energy consumption posted a dramatic decline of 30.7%.
Energy consumption in Asia Pacific in 2022 continued its upward trend with a slow
increase of 2.1%. Energy consumption growth in China, the largest energy consumer, was limited to0.9%, far slower than in earlier years. Furthermore, some Asia Pacific countries recorded substantial1

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energy consumption drops, including Pakistan with a 7.7% dive and Sri Lanka with a 10.8% plunge.
In low-income Asian countries, soaring energy prices seem to have resulted in restraints on or falls
in energy consumption through their adverse economic impacts. In 2022, energy consumption grew
by 0.9% in developed countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment and by 1.3% in developing and emerging countries outside the OECD, indicating that
non-OECD countries continuously drove global energy consumption growth. OECD countries
accounted for 38.8% of global energy consumption and non-OECD countries for 61.2% (including
46.0 percentage points for Asia Pacific), reflecting a continued trend in which the gravity center ofglobal energy consumption was shifting to non-OECD countries including Asian ones.
Third, a breakdown of global energy consumption by energy source in 2022 showed that
oil among fossil fuels scored a relatively robust increase of 3.2%, while natural gas posted asignificant decline of 3.1%. Oil consumption growth centered on jet fuel and diesel oil, driven by
growth in transportation demand. Natural gas consumption declined due to a significant surge ininternational gas and LNG market prices in almost all major countries and regions, excluding theUnited States, where natural gas consumption recorded a robust increase of 5.4%. In particular,
natural gas consumption plunged by 12.9% in Europe (including Germany, the largest natural gas
consumer, with a 15.8% decline) and by 14.0% in Russia. China's gas consumption fell by 1.2% for
the first drop in 40 years since 1982. (Incidentally, China's oil consumption fell by 4.0% in 2022 forthe first decline in 33 years since 1990).
Coal consumption increased only by 0.6% globally. Coal consumption rose by 1.0% in
China, the largest coal consumer in the world, and by 4.1% in India, the second largest, while
plunging by 6.6% in the United States, the third largest. Coal consumption trends thus differed byregion. In the European Union, coal consumption grew by 2.0% (4.0% in Germany) as coal was used
as a substitute for natural gas.
Among non-fossil energy sources, renewable energy posted a remarkable consumption
increase of 13.0%. As the construction of solar photovoltaics and wind power generation facilities
progressed to expand electricity supply capacity, institutional support such as preferentialconnections, renewable energy’s advantage of low (or zero) variable costs in competitive electricity
markets, and the enhancement of initiatives to strike a balance between decarbonization and thephaseout of dependence on Russia (mainly in Europe) contributed to the substantial increase inrenewable energy consumption. Global nuclear energy consumption decreased by 4.7% or 1.2 EJ, ofwhich France accounted for 65% or 0.78 EJ decline due to nuclear plant shutdowns caused by pipe
corrosion, abnormal drought and other problems. Germany and Ukraine also saw sharp falls in
nuclear energy consumption. The decrease in the three countries was almost equivalent to the global
decline.
Fourth, it should be noted that the above-mentioned changes in energy supply and demand
led to a sharp fluctuation in global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022. The year’s global
energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 0.9% from the previous year to 34.37 billion tons. This
increase was slightly lower than or close to the 1.1% increase in primary energy consumption. Thismay be attributable to changes in the global energy mix, including the significant increase inrenewable energy consumption coupled with the decline in nuclear power consumption, as well as
the decrease in gas consumption combined with the oil and coal consumption growth.
It should also be noted that the 0.9% increase in CO2 emissions in 2022 was higher than
the average increase of 0.6% over the past 10 years. In contrast, the 1.1% increase in primary energy
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consumption in 2022 was lower than the average increase of 1.4% in the past 10 years. It wasdifficult for the world to promote CO2 emission cuts in 2022. CO2 emissions in the year increased by
0.9% in OECD countries and by 1.0% in non-OECD countries, showing no significant difference
between developed and developing countries. In China, the largest CO2 emitter in the world,
emissions declined by 0.1%, accounting for 31% of the global emissions. The United States, thesecond largest emitter, increased emissions by 1.2%, capturing 14% of the global total. India
expanded emissions by 5.3%, commanding 8% of the global total. EU emissions posted a 0.6%
decline, smaller than the 3.5% fall in EU primary energy consumption, indicating the impact ofchanges in the EU energy mix.

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