Energy
The world lacks a safe, low-carbon, and cheap large-scale energy infrastructure.
Until we scale up such an energy infrastructure, the world will continue to face two energy problems: hundreds of millions of people lack access to sufficient energy, and the dominance of fossil fuels in our energy system drives climate change and other health impacts such as air pollution.
To ensure everyone has access to clean and safe energy, we need to understand energy consumption and its impacts around the world today and how this has changed over time.
On this page, you can find all our data, visualizations, and writing relating to energy.
Research & Writing
December 10, 2020
The world’s energy problem
The world faces two energy problems: most of our energy still produces greenhouse gas emissions, and hundreds of millions lack access to energy.
February 10, 2020
What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?
Fossil fuels are the dirtiest and most dangerous energy sources, while nuclear and modern renewable energy sources are vastly safer and cleaner.
December 01, 2020
Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?
In most places, power from new renewables is now cheaper than new fossil fuels.
Overview Articles on Energy
Energy Access and Consumption
July 05, 2021
Energy poverty and indoor air pollution: a problem as old as humanity that we can end within our lifetime
November 30, 2021
The number of people without electricity more than halved over the last 20 years
November 30, 2021
How many people do not have access to clean fuels for cooking?
November 30, 2021
Global comparison: how much energy do people consume?
December 01, 2021
The ‘Energy Ladder’: What energy sources do people on different incomes rely on?
Energy Sources and Transitions
December 01, 2021
How have the world’s energy sources changed over the last two centuries?
November 30, 2021
Is the world making progress in decarbonizing energy?
November 30, 2021
A number of countries have decoupled economic growth from energy use, even if we take offshored production into account
December 07, 2021
How much energy do countries consume when we take offshoring into account?
Energy Prices and Impacts
More Key Articles on Energy
November 08, 2021
Definition: Access to Electricity
November 08, 2021
Missing data on energy: our list of datasets that are needed but are not available
November 09, 2021
What’s the difference between direct and substituted primary energy?
April 04, 2022
Primary, secondary, final, and useful energy: Why are there different ways of measuring energy?
Key Charts on Energy
See all charts on this topic
Cite this work
Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:
Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2023) - “Energy” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/energy' [Online Resource]BibTeX citation
@article{owid-energy,
author = {Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado and Max Roser},
title = {Energy},
journal = {Our World in Data},
year = {2023},
note = {https://ourworldindata.org/energy}
}
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