Increasing Energy Consumption
Geography: Edexcel IGCSE, topic 2.1.1
Why is Energy Consumption Rising?
The global demand for energy is increasing for 4 main reasons:
Economic development and industrialisation
- As countries develop, people's standard of living rises and they demand more goods and services.
- The USA consumes 17% of the world's energy despite having only 5% of the world's population.
- More countries becoming more economically developed will increase the demand for energy and electricity.
- Manufacturing new products normally uses lots of energy and lots of water.
Increasing global population size
- The global population was 2.6 billion people in 1950.
- The global population was 6.1 billion people in 2000.
- The global population was 7.8 billion people in 2020.
- The world contains 5.2 billion more people than 70 years ago.
- More people will consume more energy.
- Population projections try to forecast the future population size. The global population is expected to be 9.8 billion by 2050.
Advances in technology
- Technology like cars, computers, smartphones, lighting, and smart TVs have increased people's quality of life. However, all of these things need energy or electricity to run.
- Although technology encourages the consumption of more energy, some innovations, like Tesla's electric cars can be more energy-efficient and save energy.
Urbanisation
- Urbanisation generally happens at the same time as development, so it can be hard to tell if urbanisation or development is the cause.
- Lots of people living in the same place means that public transport works better. Public transport is more energy efficient.
- However, incomes are generally higher in cities, so people consume more and use more energy.
Test yourself on Increasing Energy Consumption
Which of the following is not a reason for increasing global energy demands?