Fossil Fuels

The burning of fossil fuels for energy began around the onset of the Industrial Revolution. But fossil fuel consumption has changed significantly over the past few centuries – both in terms of what and how much we burn.

In the interactive chart we see global fossil fuel consumption broken down by coal, oil and gas since 1800. Earlier data, pre-1965, is sourced from Vaclav Smil's work on energy transitions; this has been combined with data published in BP's Statistical Review of World Energy from 1965 onwards.¹

Fossil fuel consumption has increased significantly over the past half-century, around eight-fold since 1950, and roughly doubling since 1980.

But the types of fuel we rely on has also shifted, from solely coal towards a combination with oil, and then gas. Today, coal consumption is falling in many parts of the world. But oil and gas are still growing quickly.

We've looked at how much fossil fuel energy is consumed globally. But what about countries? How much fossil energy do they consume?

The interactive chart here shows the amount of primary energy from fossil fuels that is consumed each year.

This is the sum of energy from coal, oil and gas. In the sections below we look at each of these sources individually.

Three tips on how to interact with this map

• By clicking on any country on the map you see the change over time in this country.
• By moving the time slider (below the map) you can see how the global situation has changed over time.
• You can focus on a particular world region using the dropdown menu to the top-right of the map.

Looking at energy consumption at the country level is often a strong reflection of population size rather than actual fossil fuel consumption per person.

How do these comparisons look when we adjust for population?

In the interactive chart we see the amount of energy from fossil fuels consumed per person. This is the sum of primary energy from coal, oil and gas combined.

Across the world we see that the largest consumers use more than ten times the amount of fossil energy than some of the smallest consumers.

Four tips on how you can interact with this chart

• Change the bar chart into a line chart: by clicking on the timeline at the bottom of the chart you can change the bar chart into a line chart.
• See the change over time: Using the 'play' button on the timeline you can see how this metric changes over time.
• Add any other country: click on the Add country button to compare with any other country.
• See the data on a world map: click on the 'MAP' tab to see the global overview across countries.

How you can interact with the stacked area chart

• In these charts it is always possible to switch to any other country in the world by choosing Change Country in the bottom left corner.
• By unticking the 'Relative' box, you can switch to see the breakdown of emissions in absolute terms.

How do fossil fuels fit in within the rest of the energy mix? What share of primary energy comes from fossil fuels?

In 2019, around 84% of global primary energy came from coal, oil and gas. Over the coming decades we need to rapidly reduce this share by displacing them with low-carbon energy sources.

In the interactive chart we see how this share varies across the world.

A few points to keep in mind when considering this data:

• These figures reflect energy consumption – that is the sum of all energy uses including electricity, transport and heating. Many people assume energy and electricity to mean the same, but electricity is just one component of total energy consumption. We look at electricity consumption later in this profile.
• These figures are based on primary energy consumption – given by the 'substitution method'. You can read our explainer on the different metrics used to measure energy here.

Two tips on how you can interact with this chart

• View the data for any country as a line chart: click on any country to see its change over time, or by using the 'CHART' tab at the bottom.
• Add any other country to the line chart: click on the Add country button to compare with any other country.

Electricity is one component of total energy consumption – the other two being transport and heating.

Globally, fossil fuels account for a much smaller share of electricity production than the energy system as a whole. In 2019, around 64% of our electricity came from fossil fuels.

This interactive map shows the share of electricity that comes from fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas summed together) across the world. Oil accounts for only a small share of electricity production – most come from coal and gas. The share from coal and gas individually can be found in the sections below.

Which countries produce the most coal? How has this changed over time?

In the interactive chart here we see coal production by country. This has been converted into primary energy equivalents (i.e. terawatt-hours of energy) for comparability across our other data on energy.

Note that this measures coal production, not consumption. Many countries consume energy from coal in their energy supply. But not all countries have coal reserves to produce this themselves. This therefore measures coal production before trade between countries.

Fossil fuel production is an important metric to follow – it helps us understand where fossil fuels are being extracted. But we also care about where that energy is being consumed – that tells us what role fossil fuels are playing in the energy system of each country.

This interactive chart shows primary energy consumption from coal across the world. This represents coal production adjusted for trade (so, coal exports are subtracted and imports are added).

Coal has been a critical energy sources, and mainstay in global energy production for centuries.

But it's also the most polluting energy source: both in terms of the amount of CO₂ it produces per unit of energy, but also the amount of local air pollution it creates. Moving away from coal energy is important for climate change as well as human health.

This interactive map shows the share of primary energy that comes from coal across the world.

Coal is currently the largest source of electricity globally. For many countries remains the dominant source. But, we also see that others have seen a massive shift away from coal in recent years – the UK is one such example.

This interactive map shows the share of electricity that comes from coal across the world.