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Proposed activity: Discuss with the students these graphs. Do they identify any patterns?
Can they explain the energy consumption differences? Why the annual change worldwide
is unequal and we see huge differences?

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption

To this end, if this increased demand is not offset by improvements in energy efficiency
elsewhere, then our global energy consumption will continue to grow year-on-year.
Growing energy consumption makes the challenge of transitioning our energy systems away
from fossil fuels towards low-carbon sources of energy (RES) more difficult.
To understand the increased energy consumption needs, the following chart shows how global energy
consumption has been changing at a yearly basis since 1960. The change is given as a percentage of
consumption in the previous year. These data indicate that global energy consumption has increased
nearly every year for more than half a century. The exceptions to this are in the early 1980s (oil crisis),
2009 following the financial crisis and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, global energy consumption continues to grow, but it does seem to be slowing – averaging
around 1% to 2% per year!!!

Proposed activity: Discuss with the students the following graph. At which period the
annual change in primary energy consumption dropped? Why is that? What do we realized?
DATA MATTER FOR ASSESSING POLICY MEASURES, TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS,
NATIONAL STRATEGIES ETC. !

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.
pg. 21