World 'consumed more energy in 2010 than ever before'

Coal consumption: up. Oil consumption (and prices): up. Hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and biofuel consumption: all up. Carbon dioxide emissions: up.

An improving (though it didn’t feel like it in some places) global economy last year caused growth in all things energy-related as well, according to the just-released 60th annual BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The report offers a good-news, bad-news update on our global energy appetite: while we’re rolling out clean-energy projects faster than ever, we’re also devouring fossil fuels more than ever too and pumping ever-more carbon into the atmosphere.

And, wherever you look, China is playing a big role. It became the world’s largest energy consumer in 2010, overtaking the US for that dubious title. It contributed more to the rising demand for oil than any other country. It also increased its output from renewable-energy sources by 75 percent. If any nation has a reason to be concerned about energy security, it’s China.

“I was in China a couple of weeks ago and I came away with a very clear sense of how rigorously China is thinking about these issues,” said Bob Dudley, BP’s CEO upon release of the annual energy report. “Growth is by no means the only game in town. They want to maintain social cohesion and they want to make their growth more sustainable. In sum, they are worried about energy security and climate change — just as we are.”

Despite BP’s own troubled reputation (last year at this time, oil from its failed Macondo well was still sending gushers of crude into the Gulf of Mexico), Dudley’s right about the cause for concern. Our global energy stats, at the current rates they’re growing, simply aren’t sustainable.

“By year-end, economic activity for the world as a whole exceeded pre-crisis levels driven by the so-called developing world,” said Christof Rühl, BP’s group chief economist. “Energy intensity — the amount of energy used for one unit of GDP — grew at the fastest rate since 1970. And so, when all the accounting is done, planet Earth — we all — consumed more energy in 2010 than ever before.”