Consumption of Fossil Fuels
Keunhoo Park ’26
Christian Aljian ’24
Fossil fuels are an energy source that was first used industrially in the early 1700s and have grown to “currently supply about 80% of the world’s energy” (EESI, n.d.). For as long as they have been our primary source of energy, the effects have greatly impacted our world. Recently, steps have been made towards replacing the use of fossil fuels by investing in renewable energy sources (Mosley, 2023). With the recent decrease in fossil fuel usage, this article will explore how the consumption of fossil fuels looked in the past, present, and future.
The burning of fossil fuels for energy began around the start of the Industrial Revolution during the 18th century. From a data graph that compiled fossil fuel consumption, coal was the first energy source used until 1860, measured in 1,061 TWh (Ritchie & Rosado, 2022). Gas, oil, and coal usage increased drastically from 1880, reaching a total of 71,596 TWh in 1980, almost 18 folds more from where they started (Ritchie & Rosado, 2022).
Currently, varying usages of fossil fuels, like transportation or electricity, have resulted in a total of 136,018 TWh of energy from fossil fuels used in 2021 (Du, 2023). Carbon emissions from global superpowers, such as the U.S. and China, reached 15.7 billion tons combined in 2020 (Du, 2023). With numbers consistently rising, people have searched for more sustainable sources of energy due to the negative environmental impacts of the energy source.
With “strong deployments of solar PV and wind power” happening in 2023, it is estimated that the “world’s total renewable energy capacity [will rise] to 4,500 GW, equaling the total power output of China and the U.S. combined” (IEA, 2023). Data gathered in 2020 suggests that there are approximately 50 years of fossil fuel reserves left until oil and gas are completely depleted (MET, 2021). However, with the continuous development of clean energy, we can look forward to a future with a percentage majority of renewable energy fueling our world.
References
Du, T. (2023, March 10). Charted: Global energy consumption by source, and carbon emissions (1900-2021). Visual Capitalist.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charting-consumption-production-fossil-fuels/
Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). (n.d.). Fossil fuels. EESI. https://www.eesi.org/topics/fossil-fuels/description
Iea. (2023, June 1). Renewable power on course to shatter more records as countries around the world speed up deployment - news.
MET. When will fossil fuels run out? MET Group. (2021, January 18).
https://group.met.com/en/mind-thefyouture/mindthefyouture/when-will-fossil-fuels-run-out
Mosley, T. (2023, October 5). U.S. transition to clean energy is happening faster than you think, reporter says.
Ritchie, H., Rosado, P., & Roser, M. (2023, October 6). Fossil fuels. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels
