Energy Institute releases 2025 Statistical Review of World Energy

26 June 2025

The Energy Institute (EI) released the 74^th edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy (previously published by BP) presenting data on global energy as well as critical minerals for 2024.

Global energy supply increased by ~2% in 2024, with all energy sources, including oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, and renewable energy registering increases. Energy related carbon emissions increased by ~1%, reaching a new record level of 40.8 Gt of CO_2e.

While wind and solar energy expanded by an impressive 16% in 2024, nine times faster than total energy demand, this growth did not fully counterbalance rising demand elsewhere, with total fossil fuel use growing by just over 1%.

“These trends underscore a stark truth,” said the EI in a press release. “While renewable energy is scaling faster than ever, global demand is rising even faster. Rather than replacing fossil fuels, renewables are adding to the overall energy mix. This pattern, marked by simultaneous growth in clean and conventional energy illustrates the structural, economic, and geopolitical barriers to achieving a truly coordinated global energy transition.”

This year, the EI has introduced several changes to their methodology. Importantly, the primary energy contributions from non-fossil sources are now based on the actual energy content, rather than on the input-equivalent energy method (i.e., the amount of fuel that would be required by a thermal power station to generate the reported electricity output), which was used until the last year. This change significantly reduced the numerical values for primary energy from hydro, solar, and wind generation. In another change, biofuels—once reported together with oil—are now a part of the ‘renewables’ category.

Under the new methodology, renewables represented 7.3% of the total primary energy consumption in 2024, hydropower 2.7%, and nuclear power 5.1%. Wind power provided 1.5% of total primary energy (9.04 EJ), while solar power contributed 1.3% (7.72 EJ).

Oil & Liquid Fuels—Oil remained the largest source of energy in 2024. Although slowing, global demand increased by 0.7% to breach the 101 million barrels per day (mb/d) level for the first time ever. Having initially rebounded following Covid, all regions exhibited either a slowing down or a plateauing in oil demand. OECD demand remained flat at 45 mb/d whilst non-OECD demand grew by 0.7 mb/d. Africa and the Middle East were the fastest-growing regions at 2.5% and 1.6% respectively. China displayed signs of oil demand peaking in 2023 registering a 1.2% drop in demand in 2024.

Global demand for fuel oil and diesel/gasoil fell -2% and -0.5% respectively. This was largely driven by China with an increase in LNG-fueled trucks reducing demand for diesel. Globally, demand increased for jet/kerosene (0.4 mb/d), ethane and LPG (0.4 mb/d), and gasoline (0.3 mb/d).

Natural Gas—Global gas production rose to 4,124 billion cubic meters (bcm) with the largest producers being the USA, Russia, Iran, and China 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.

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 centered in the Asia Pacific region, 67% of which was attributable to China.

Despite record investment levels in renewables, coal still dominates China’s electricity sector generating 58% of its output in 2024. 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. In Europe, coal consumption fell 7%. Coal 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.

Electricity—At 4%, electricity demand growth continued to outpace total energy demand growth, an indicator that the world’s energy system continues to electrify. 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. Over the past decade, China has nearly doubled its electricity supply adding 405 TWh more than Europe’s entire 2024 electricity generation.

Wind and solar continued to be the fastest-growing areas of the energy system increasing by 16% in 2024, with China responsible for 57% of new additions globally. Wind and solar met 53% of the global increase in generation. Generation from renewables, including hydro, met 32% of global electricity supply last year.

With the exception of oil, generation from all sources increased globally in 2024. 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.

Key Minerals— Global rare earth metals mining increased by 3.2% in 2024 reaching 0.4 million tonnes. China maintained its dominance accounting for 71% of global production and 48% of worldwide reserves.

Source: Energy Institute