The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy is now out. It can be downloaded here:
https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review
Looking at the global picture, here are the 2025 percentages…
Fossil fuels 86% Nuclear 5% Hydro 3% Renewables 6%
DB2
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A first look at this report reveals that world consumption of fossil fuels continue to set record highs. These record highs were set for all three of the main fossil fuels.
2025 world consumption, in Exajoules
Petroleum: 200.97 EJ
Natural Gas: 150.70
Coal: 166.03
Total world electricity generation was also at an all-time high in 2025, at 32,202 Terawatt-hours.
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Page 64 has an interesting table, showing the power demand from the world’s data centers. Total world data center electricity demand, in TWh, is given below for recent years.
Year Electricity consumption
2020 410.8 TWh
2021 453.7
2022 494.4
2023 578.4
2024 658.2
2025 787.8
2025 had a 19.7% growth rate over 2024. According to the table, the United States has about a 40% share of the total data center demand. The US growth rate in this category was 25.5% in 2025.
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World CO2 emissions from energy in 2025 were 35,806 million metric tons.
Equivalent CO2 emissions from a total of energy, process emissions, methane, and flaring were at 41,036 million tons. Needless to say, these were record highs in 2025.
Peak fossil fuels is always in the near future, but never seems to arrive.
_ Pete
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Just because we invented nuclear power we did not stop burning coal and wood. The more supply the more demand. First Law of Economics. Want to stop burning oil? Stop getting it out of the ground!
The Captain
At the same time, when a lot of oil got stuck in the Persian Gulf recently there were a bunch of unhappy consumers around the world.
DB2